of the great "Han-Hai," or Dried-up Sea. The
mountain freshets, dissolving the salt from their sandy channels, carry it
down in solution and deposit it with evaporation in massive layers,
forming a comparatively hard roadway in the midst of the shifting
sand-dunes. Over these latter our progress was extremely slow. One stretch
of fifteen miles, which it took us six hours to cover, was as formidable
as any part of the Turkoman desert along the Transcaspian railway. At an
altitude of only six hundred feet above the sea, according to our aneroid
barometer, and beneath the rays of a July sun against which even our felt
caps were not much protection, we were half-dragging, half-pushing, our
wheels through a foot of sand, and slapping at the mosquitos swarming upon
our necks and faces. These pests, which throughout this low country are
the largest and most numerous we have ever met, are bred in the
intermediate swamps, which exist only through the negligence of the
neighboring villagers. At night smoldering fires, which half suffocate the
human inmates, are built before the doors and windows to keep out the
intruding insects. All travelers wear gloves, and a huge hood covering the
head and face up to the eyes, and in their hands carry a horse-tail switch
to lash back and forth over their shoulders. Being without such protection
we suffered both day and night.

[Illustration: A CHINESE GRAVEYARD ON THE EASTERN OUTSKIRTS OF
KULDJA.]

The mountain freshets all along the road to Urumtsi were more frequent and
dangerous than any we had yet encountered. Toward evening the melting
snows, and the condensing currents from the plain heated during the day,
fill and overflow the channels that in the morning are almost dry. One
stream, with its ten branches, swept the stones and boulders over a
shifting channel one mile in width. It was when wading through such
streams as this, where every effort was required to balance ourselves and
our luggage, that the mosquitos would make up for lost time with impunity.
The river, before reaching Manas, was so swift and deep as to necessitate
the use of regular government carts. A team of three horses, on making a
misstep, were shifted away from the ford into deep water and carried far
down the stream. A caravan of Chinese traveling-vans, loaded with goods
from India, were crossing at the time, on their way to the outlying
provinces and the Russian border. General Bauman at Vernoye had informed