国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

he sent an officer and three soldiers to our camp to enquire who we were and what our intentions might be. They had heard us shooting among the hills and were glad to see that we had killed three wolves. We were free to do as we pleased, but the chief's delegates requested us not to dig in the earth, as this might disturb the spirits of the soil. We were also asked especially to leave alone all eminences that were surmounted by an obo.

The following day I sent Major WAi,z and Dr YUArr on a counter-visit. They found the chief to be a decent old Mongol, who plied them with questions and wanted to know all about us. He finally declared his intention of paying us a ceremonial visit in person.

A couple of days later he despatched an elderly official wearing large spectacles and a picturesque apparel of dark blue cloth. Our visitor was also decked out with heavy silver trappings and carried a rifle. He and his escort were invited to tea and cigarettes, and were afterwards filmed while I sat chatting with them in the opening of the mess-tent. The prince himself, however, never paid us the promised visit.

Mu-mingghan borders upon Darkhan Beile to the east and Jun Gung or the » Eastern Duke » of Urat to the west, all belonging to The Ulan Chap League.

WEATHER IN THE MIDDLE OF JUNE

Khujirtu-gol has an altitude of 1995 meters above sea-level and enjoys a highland climate. Although we were in the middle of June the temperature had not exceeded 27° Centigrade in the shade; and we were astonished when the minimum temperature one night sank as low as one degree above zero. A couple of nights later we had frost (-2° C.). But in calm weather the temperature in the tents was as much as 38° C., and out in the open one felt the burning effect of the sun's rays. With the possible exception of a couple of the Chinese who used the large, elegant, red parasols of their country, we were all, yellow and white alike, swarthy with sun-tan. The climate was quite ideal, with its dry mountain-air. It was like a highland sanatorium, where one feels that one could not possibly be in better health whatever one does. Only between II and 5 o'clock during the day could one speak of a perceptible warmth; but one never felt it as trying in any way. As soon as the sun had set, however, it became cold. The direct rays of the sun, that at denser and lower atmospheric levels are largely absorbed, struck one at this altitude with much greater force. But there was an almost perpetual wind blowing from all points of the compass. We had already had winds of over twenty second-meters' velocity; and with these continual fresh and cooling air-currents one certainly had no cause to complain of the heat.

One day, when everything was dead calm, my boy MING came and poured water

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