the Gobi. I felt as if I were a regular tippler in the delight with which I heard the pop of the cork, and saw the wine gurgling out into the tumbler. It was not improved by the jolting of the journey and the heat, but was uncommonly good for all that.
The following day we continued over the plain, on which we passed two or three herds of wild asses, and on the i ith we reached a large Mongol encampment named Man-chin-tol, in a plain at the foot of the first spurs of the Altai Mountains, on the higher points of which we could see slight traces of snow. Water was plentiful, being found in small pools all over the plain. It had, however, a brackish taste, and there was soda efflorescence on the margin of the pools.
During the morning a small caravan of twenty camels from Su-chow pitched camp near us. It belonged to a Chinese merchant trading amongst the Mongols. We bought some black beans for the camels, and shiau-mi (small millet) for porridge for myself.
I had a general hit out all round to-day. On asking the guide how many days it was to Hami, he said twenty, but only thirteen remain to make up the sixty, which is the contract time. I told my boy to explain this to him, and tell him that he would not get eighteen taels for the half camel extra. He muttered something about having lost a camel and being delayed in buying new ones, and about the rain and the wind. But I explained to him that I was paying a high price, and had taken light loads to go quickly, and that fifty days was the time in which I ought to get to Hami, but that sixty days was put in the contract to cover all risks of rain, etc. ; and finally I told him that I had a passport from the Tsung-liyamen, and that all the mandarins had been written to, to give me help, so that when I arrived at Hami, and told the Yamen how he had delayed me on the road, there would be a row. But I am afraid all this talking won't get me to Hami any the
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