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i7,ooo FEET ABOVE THE SEA. 207
and tired breathing of the camels. It continued to snow
wildly all night, as I could hear by the snow being blown
over my yurt.
Owing to the large quantity which fell and then melted,
the country we travelled across during the succeeding
days was made even more miry than it was before. The
ground, however, remained frozen till noon, when it was
like walking on thin ice ; but in the afternoon it thawed.
In one place, which the first five camels passed over with-
out anything happening, the last, the sixth camel, went
through with both fore-feet. The mire held him fast,
and he began to sink in deeper and deeper. The other
camels, led by Turdu Bai, continued to march on, tightening
the rope which went round the nose of the sixth and con-
nected him with those in front of him. This made the
poor beast scream with pain. All the men hurried up, and
began to unloosen his load and take it off. Whilst they
were doing this, the camel fell over on his side, softening
the ground still more. The animal refused to help himself,
as he had done in the water, and there we were, floundering
and stumbling about in the quagmire. I feared the camel
was lost. His pack-saddle was sucked into the mud and
had to be cut off where it was. It went immensely against
the grain to lose this fine animal in this stupid way.
Hurriedly unfastening some of the tent-felts, we brought
them to where the camel was every moment sinking deeper
into the slough, and putting a rope round each leg in turn,
we hauled them up, first one, and then the other, and as
we did so, placed each on a roll of felt. In this way we
gave him firm supports to stand upon ; then, after allowing
him a couple of minutes to recover, we forced him, by
shouting, whipping and hauling at his nose-rope, to make
a desperate effort to rise. The device was successful,
and the camel staggered on to firm ground, the mud and
mire dripping in lumps from his legs and sides. Whilst
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