Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XIII.—Up Into Desolate Tibet
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
174 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
it until we overtook it. But then I was tied down b}^ my
map, which I could not continue in the dark. There was
therefore nothing to be done but we must stop where we
were. I sent on Tokta Akhun, with orders to return as
quickly as possible with my yurt and my boxes.
The beat of the horses’ hoofs on the gravel in the bottom
of the valley soon died away, and I and my Cossack were
left alone in the darkness and bitter cold, at an altitude of
15,240 feet above the sea. We crept deeper into our skin
overcoats, and sat and talked. Cherdon told me about his
adventures during their military manoeuvres in Trans-
Baikalia, and I described the melancholy nights I had
spent in the Desert of Takla-makan. The frost began to
nip, and the wind came cutting like a knife down the glen.
We sought shelter behind two big blocks of stone, but it
was too cold to sleep. We were tired after being eleven hours
in the saddle, and a cup of hot tea would have gone down
amazingly. It would not have been so bad if we could
have made a fire, but there was no fuel to be had, and even
if there had been any we could not have found it in the
dark. Then we dozed off a little, but were soon wakened
up by the long-drawn howl of a wolf ; evidently there were
more than we that were going supperless that night.
Finally, we had to get up and stamp our feet, and swing
our arms about to keep our blood in circulation. At
length, at three o’clock in the morning, after a wait of five
hours, the relief caravan turned up, and I need not say how
good supper tasted after our seventeen hours’ fast.
After that we crossed the mountain-range of the Kalta-
alagan, and directed our steps westwards along a broad
flat valley, in which a great number of kulans were grazing.
Upon reaching Camp No. XV. I was astonished to find at
the entrance to my yurt a couple of fresh acquaintances,
namely, two small kulan foals, only a few days old ;
they
were trotting about at liberty and showing not the slightest
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
