Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 170 (Color Image)

0170	Among the Celestials : vol.1

".i . v ix'

138 AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. VI.

as bare as a well-kept garden drive. I lay

down on the ground and slept till Liu-san

brought me some soup and tinned beef. We

started again at four, watched the sun rise

again, marched through the whole morning

right up to three in the afternoon, passing over

the most desolate country I have ever seen.

Nothing we had passed hitherto could compare

with it —a succession of gravel ranges without

a sign of life, animal or vegetable, and not a

drop of water. We were gradually descending

to a very low level, the sun was getting higher

and higher, and the wind hotter and hotter,

until I shrank from it as from the blast of a

furnace, and would often put my hand up to

shield my face. Only the hot winds of the

Punjab could be likened to it.

Fortunately we still had some water in the

casks, brought from our last camping-ground,

and we had some bread, so we were not on

our last legs ; but the march was trying enough

for the men, and much more so for the camels,

for they had nothing to eat or drink, and the

heat both days was extreme. The guide called

the distance two hundred and thirty li, and I

reckon it at about seventy miles. We were

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books