. The book of the long trail. ight phosphorescent cloud. The days wereoften disagreeable, with winds and heavy rain. On May 20 and 21 Younghusband passed throughthe district known as the Galpin Gobi, and crossed thetrack of the traveller Prjevalsky, who wrote of it, Thisdesert is so terrible that in comparison with it thedeserts of Northern Tibet may be called Younghusband got safely through, and reachedthe Bortson Well on the 22nd. That evening one ofhis camels broke loose, threw its load (luckily), andbolted into the darkness ; but among the Hurku hillshe was able to buy two fre
. The book of the long trail. ight phosphorescent cloud. The days wereoften disagreeable, with winds and heavy rain. On May 20 and 21 Younghusband passed throughthe district known as the Galpin Gobi, and crossed thetrack of the traveller Prjevalsky, who wrote of it, Thisdesert is so terrible that in comparison with it thedeserts of Northern Tibet may be called Younghusband got safely through, and reachedthe Bortson Well on the 22nd. That evening one ofhis camels broke loose, threw its load (luckily), andbolted into the darkness ; but among the Hurku hillshe was able to buy two fresh ones from a Mongol the 23rd he was overtaken and passed by a caravanof 140 camels, carrying clothes, boots, and rifles toGuchen. 190 THE BOOK OF THE LONG TRAIL On June 3 a terrific dust-storm blew up suddenlyfrom the west, and the travellers had to dismount andlie at full length behind the baggage. Fortunatelythey were on a gravel plain with no sand to drift overthem ; but the small pebbles were driven hard against. Liu-san showed the revolver to everyone he met. them and hurt them considerably. Two days after-wards they reached the sandhills, a most remarkablerange called Hun-kua-ling, forty miles in length, a heapof white fantastically shaped hills rising to 900 feet,and without a trace of vegetation upon them. Beyondlay another sand range between two ranges of rock ;the plain below was covered with tamarisk bushes, but FRANCIS YOUNGHUSBAND 191 their roots were all laid bare by the wind, which seemedto have fought with and rent the very surface of theland, and the scene is one of indescribable confusion. On June 8, towards dark, after passing through thesandhills, the caravan was approaching another lowrange of hills, when the guide halted and advisedYounghusband to get out his revolver, as these hillswere a favourite resort of robbers. The advance wasaccordingly continued in fighting formation : Young-husband went first, on foot, with revolver in hand ;the leading
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectexplorers, bookyear19
