Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/71

Rh ground, in which the salt water would collect. Some of our companions had often made the journey before, and knew the way perfectly across these deserts. They could tell directly which were the most likely places for water: in some places the precious fluid was not more than three feet below the surface; in most of the road-side wells it was generally very bad, and, to make it worse, the Dungans often threw into them the bodies of dead Mongols. I cannot help shuddering now when I remember how one day, after having drunk tea, we proceeded to give some drink to the camels, and discovered the putrid carcass of a man lying at the bottom of the well from which we had drawn water for our own use!

We could not sleep at the halting-places because of the great heat of the soil and the stifling atmosphere. Notwithstanding which, we had to remove the pack-saddles of the camels to prevent their backs from becoming sore, as they infallibly would in the hot weather if we neglected this precaution. It took us an hour to water our animals — a tedious process which had to be performed every day in hot weather, each camel consuming on an average six gallons at a time. Even at night our rest was disturbed owing to excessive exhaustion.

For the first few days our tent was beset by inquisitive visitors. They would know everything. Our guns — every article we possessed, no matter how insignificant, was an object of interest to them. They would take it up, examine it closely, smell it, and ask numberless questions, which we had to