spread in the middle—three officers on each side, and one at the head. No wonder these Russians thought my camp arrangements luxurious. I had what is known as a field-officer's Kabul tent, about eight feet in length, breadth, and height, and with a bath-room and double fly. I had, too, a bed, table, and chair. Such luxury filled the Russians with astonishment ; but they were merely making a rapid raid, while I had set out from India to travel for more than a year. The whole tent and equipment of camp furniture was not a pony-load, and when there is no necessity to stint transport, as there is not on the Pamirs, for a small party, it it much better to take a whole pony-load, and make one's self comfortable, than to take half a load and be miserable. When there is any necessity for it, British officers go without any tent at all ; but when they can make themselves comfortable, as a rule they do.
We squeezed into the little tent, and proceedings commenced with drinking the inevitable glass of vodka. Then followed a dinner, which for its excellence astonished me quite as much as my camp arrangements had astonished the Russians. Russians always seem to be able to produce soups and stews of a good wholesome, satisfying nature, such as native servants from India never seem able to imitate. The Russians had vegetables, too—a luxury to me—and sauces and relishes, and, besides vodka, two different kinds of wine and brandy. Though only one of the six Russians spoke French, they were all very hospitable and cordial, and at the conclusion of dinner Colonel Yonoff proposed the health of Queen Victoria, while I proposed that of the Emperor of Russia.
There were, besides Colonel Yonoff, a staff-officer from St. Petersburgh, two Cossack officers, a doctor, and a surveyor named Benderski, who had been to Kabul with the Russian mission of 1878, and had also surveyed the Pamirs with Ivanoff's expedition of 1883. Colonel Yonoff now showed me the survey which his party had just made, and the route they
IIIF Color HighRes
