Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/42

22 was generally clear. Snow only fell three times during the whole of December, covering the ground in places several inches thick, although many parts remained quite bare of snow.

The icy winds of Siberia, the almost constantly unclouded sky, the bare saline soil, and its great altitude above the sea, combine to make the Gobi or desert of Mongolia one of the coldest countries in the whole of Asia. But though even here, on the Mongolian border adjoining China, the great elevation of the plateau of course affects the temperature, the climate is far less severe than in remoter parts of the Gobi, and only on rare occasions are the extreme rigours of its winter experienced.

Every day's journey diminished the distance which separated us from Kalgan, and increased our impatience to gain that town. At last the long-wished-for moment arrived, and at a late hour on New Year's Eve (12th January) 1872, we appeared before our Kalgan fellow-countrymen, who received us as hospitably as before.

The first act of the expedition was ended. The results of our journey, which had been so gradually collected, now became plainer. We could say with clear consciences that so far w(had fulfilled our task; and this amount of success only whetted our passionate desire to plunge once again into the heart of Asia, and strive to reach the distant shores of Lake Koko-nor,