Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/294

268 heat as much as possible we rose before daybreak; tea-drinking and loading the camels, however, took up so much time that we never got away before four or even five o'clock in the morning. We might have lightened the fatigue considerably by night-marching, but in that case we should have had to forego the survey which formed so important a part of our labours. The line on the accompanying map marking our route from Din-yuan-ing to Urga is barely over a foot long, yet it was obtained at the cost of forty-four marches, mostly accomplished in the burning midday heat of the desert.

The commencement of our journey was unpropitious, for on the sixth day after we left Din-yuan-ing, we lost our faithful friend 'Faust,' and we ourselves nearly perished in the sands.

It was on the 31st July; wе had left Djaratai-dabas and had taken the direction of the Khan-ula mountains; our guide having informed us that a march of eighteen miles lay before us that day, but that we should pass two wells about five miles apart.

Having accomplished that distance, we arrived at the first, and after watering our animals, proceeded, in the full expectation of finding the second, where we intended to halt; for though it was only seven in the morning, the heat was overpowering. So confident were we that the Cossacks proposed to throw away the supply of water that we had taken in the casks, in order not to burden our camels needlessly, but fortunately I forbade their doing this. After nearly