19 miles towards the south-west to the well Tuar. A t
10 o’ clock we descended 200 feet into the bed of a
river, or sea, with banks washed into various forms,
apparently by the action of water. This brought us to
a plain, bounded by distant cliffs. We then remounted
to a higher land, 250 feet above the sea level, and
camped, hoping on the morrow to attain to Tuar.
In certain respects our journey was rather more
endurable here than on some portions of the way.
The route was not quite so monotonous and lifeless,
for we saw several game birds, and among them what
was called the Wild Hen. It is rather larger than a
pigeon, runs very fast, and is shy. They get them
near Krasnovodsk in the rocks, and sell them from 8d.
to 10d. a brace. Marmots abounded, but not with the
squirrel-like tails we had seen in Bokhara, On one
occasion we stirred up a solitary Owl, and further on
saw a few Jackdaws, but not many small birds. Once,
too, we scared from her form a frightened Hare. The
weather, moreover, now was perfection. My pocket
thermometer in the sun stood at 750, and the temperature
was sufficiently warm to induce me, in riding by
day, to throw off my great coat. I always slept, however,
in the cradle in my furs, and was not much
incommoded by cold, though my sheepskin hat and
the furs about my face were unpleasantly wet.
But with all this I am bound to say our spirits were
somewhat low. It was now our eleventh day since
leaving Kunia Urgenj, and we had not yet come in
sight of the Caspian. T h e novelty of camel travelling
had worn off, and the journey promised to be longer
than I anticipated. Things moved, as I thought, so
slowly. When I left Samarkand; or soon after, I found
that I had exhausted, or nearly so, all my books that I
brought with me to read. Ordinarily in England,
when going for only an hour’s journey, I no more
think of starting without something to read than
without my purse, and I wondered how I should
employ my thoughts on this long, slow journey. I
cross-questioned Tailly severely whether some means
could not be invented by which I might gallop on
horseback the allotted day’s journey, and have my tent
put up so as to do some writing and arrangement of
my notes, whilst the camels were walking on their
leisurely way. But he said a horse could not carry
the tent, and a camel could not keep up with the
horse, so that he could contrive nothing. Preparation,
therefore, for literary work seemed out of the question.
The idea occurred to me, however, that I might
glance through my pocket-Bible, and mark therein all
the passages on which light or illustration could be
thrown from incidents in my 10 years’ travels. The
print of my Bible was too small, and the shaking of
the camel too great, to allow of my doing much in the
cradle, but I often adopted another plan. I galloped
forward a good distance in front of the caravan, to
some herbage if possible, that Diotrephes could crop,
and then, whilst he was nibbling, I sat reading till the
caravan had come up and passed, and was nearly out
of sight, by which time, my horse was impatient to
catch it up again. By thus economizing my time, and
using up odd moments, I managed to glance through
the Old and New Testaments, and marked therein
more than 500 passages.
But besides the weariness of mind incident to such
slow travelling, the fatigue of body was not small, and
the lack of ordinary domestic comforts began to be
very trying. Our clothes had not been off for a long