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io8 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
entirely ceased. The men were again seriously anxious,
Ordek especially being filled with disquietude, for the desert
seemed as if it would never end, and the sun never shone.
He talked of the green banks of the Tarim, and its flocks
of sheep, and its reed huts, and dancing canoes, and fish, as
of a paradise which he should never see again.
The camels were now so exhausted that we had to grant
them another day’s rest. I myself was almost dead-beat
with weariness, and could do nothing but lie in the sand and
read, although it snowed heavily all day, while the snow-
flakes, big and thick, fell hissing into the fire and staining
the leaves of my note-book. At noon even it was a thick
twilight ; dunes, sand and sky melted together into one
white, dizzy, whirling mass in a faint, diffused light without
any relief whatever. The snow was still falling late at
night. The sparks, flying up from the blazing fire, en-
countered the snow-flakes, and converted them into drops
of water, making them glitter like iron spray.
It was rather a cool night to lie out in the open, the ther-
mometer registering — 22° Fahr., and when I crept out of my
sleeping-bag in the morning there were still 43° of frost.
I was entirely covered up with snow, and the snow was
falling as fast as ever. Before I could get up, Islam had
to dig me out, and brush the snow-drift away with a wisp
of reeds. I always used to undress as I do at home, and I
can assure you that undressing under such circumstances
is anything but an unmixed pleasure. I used to perform
the operation in the following manner. Sitting in front of
the fire, I flung off my clothes as quickly as ever I could,
while Islam gathered them up one by one and stuffed them
under my pillow, to keep them dry during the night. Then
I wrapped myself in a woollen nightshirt, two yards long,
and thick and soft, and haviiig crept under the bed-covering,
I pulled a soft fox-skin hasklik, or " hood," over my head,
and was well tucked in all round by Islam. At first I used
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