2 50 IN TIBET AND CHINESE TURKESTAN.
soon snug within my sleeping-bag, only my face being exposed to the freezing air.
Awaking at daybreak from sound and comfortable sleep, I found that the thermometer which hung at my head indicated a temperature of zero F. Proceeding to rouse the caravan, I urged the men to get ready for the journey without delay, but it was late in the forenoon when we resumed our march. In the short distance to Misgan we had no trouble, and there we found a couple of Kirghiz from the Tashkurghan Pamir. These people, in accordance with the habits of the region, professed utter ignorance of the distance to the Yarkand River. Passing their tent, we followed a very crooked track in and out of dense jungle, and beset in places with projecting rocks. The jungle impeded the yaks, while both jungle and rocks severely damaged the baggage, but before darkness had quite fallen we had reached a more open part of the valley. There we found some abandoned houses and fields, and, about a couple of hundred yards further down, was a side-valley up which another route branched. I had hoped to reach the Yarkand River that night, but the yaks were so tired and the way so bad that it would have been unreasonable to have insisted on pushing on. A fairly large ruined house offered shelter for us all, and we were cheered by the blaze of thick, dry wood which we found in abundance. A. few hundred yards from the place where we were bivouacking we had passed several heaps of chopped straw, yet the yak-men had no intention of supplying their animals with fodder, till I threatened pains and penalties to those who did not either bring the food to the yaks or take the yaks to the food. After a late repast I unpacked the instruments and had them carried to the small side-valley, where the usual observations were taken. At the bivouac I was informed, to my surprise, that this valley, from Misgan downwards, formed part of
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