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TO THE YARKAND-DARIA. 19
and scarcely had the rain got it all washed off, when down
the camel would go again. Fortunately, my photographic
plates were all securely stowed away in metal cases,
hermetically sealed, and all my instruments were well
packed ; as for the rest of the baggage, it was of less
consequence.
Perhaps I ought to say a word or two about the con-
tents of my cases which were being thus drenched with
rain and flung about so unceremoniously in the mud.
They included sketch-books and drawing-materials for a
good three years, clothes and felts, a bed, a canvas skiff,
preserved foods, cooking utensils, all sorts of implements,
provisions (consisting of flour, vegetables, bread, rice),
sufficient for the entire caravan, a quantity of khalats,
of cotton goods, of caps, and of various other small
articles intended as gifts for the natives. My photo-
graphic equipment formed a heavy load for one camel.
I had sufficient tobacco to last, not only myself, but my
Cossacks, for the whole of the journey. On the other
hand, though you had searched from the one end of the
caravan to the other, you would not have found a single
drop of either wine or spirits. To make yourself dependent
upon alcohol is under all circumstances a serious mistake ;
but to do so during a journey, which is in itself sufficiently
exacting, is absolutely reprehensible. Those who abstain
from them, both in civilised countries and in uncivihsed,
are the best ; while those who are slaves to them are
bodily and mentally pitiful creatures. In my caravan
there was nobody who missed these things ; I never heard
the Cossacks even hint at them. In this respect they were,
I am glad to say, characterized by the self-restraint and
discipline which are absolutely necessary if any great
undertaking is to be carried through to a successful issue.
As we were to be for so long a time cut off from the
outer world, and to be thrown entirely upon ourselves, we
2*
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