The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-06

very Ill. we only proceeded four kilO-
metres that day-early in the morning.
MY men were all weeping and clam
oring to Allah. They said they could
go no futher; they said they wanted
TO die. l made them put up the tent,
and then we undressed and lay down
naked in the tent. During that day we
killed our last sheep and drank it's
blood. We all thought to die. In the
evening of May day we were all mad
with raging thirst. When night fell
we walked on. Two Of the men could
not move. They were dying; so we
had to leave them. 1 said to them:
Wait little here. sleep a little, and
then follow u.s. I had to abandon
much Of my luggage-5.0O0 kroners'
worth-for the camels were too weak.
But 1 took my most important instru-
ments with us, all my Chinese silver,
my maps and my notes. That night
another camel died. 1 was ahead, car
rying a torch to lead the way. In the
night third man gave in and lay
down in the sand and motioned to ME
to leave him to die. Then I abandoned
everything-silver, maps and note
books-and took only what could car
ry, two chronometers, box of match
es, ten cigarettes and compass; the
last Of the men followed. We went
east. The man carried a spade and
an iron pot. The spade was to dig
for water. the iron pot held clotted
blood, foul and putrid. Thus we stag
gered on through the moving dunes Of
sand till the morning of the I'd of May.
Holes in the Sand.
when the sun rose we dug out holes
In the sand, which were cold from the
frost of the night, and undressed and
lay down naked; with our clothes and
the spade we made little tent which
gave us just enough shelter for our
heads. We lay there for ten hours. At
nightfall we staggered on again, still
towards the east. We advanced all the
night OF the End and the morning of
the 9rd of May. On this morning, as
we stumbled along, Kasim suddenly
grlpped my shoulder and pointed east;
he could not speak. 1 could see moth
ing. AT last he whispered, 'tamarisk'
SO we walked on, and after a while
saw a green thing on the horizon. We
reached it at last, but we could not dig;
1t was all sand, yards deep. But we
thanked God and munched the green
foliage. and all that day we lay naked
in its shadow. At nightf2ll I dressed
and babe Kasim follow; de lay were he
was and said not a word. i left him
and went east I went on till o'clock
in the morning. Then I came to anoth-
terly cold L collected the fallen branch
es and made fire. In the night my
companion came up; he had seen the
fire. He did not speak; we had no in
terest to talk; it was impossible to do
so, for our mouths were as dry as our
skins. That night we walked on for
several hours, and so on till the sun
grew hot on the 4th Of May, and we
again lay down naked in the sand On
the night of May we advanced, craw-
ing on all fours, and resting every ten
yards or so. l meant to save my life;
I felt all along that my life could not
be thrown away like that. We came to
three desert poplars on a patch of soil
where there was no sand. We tried to
dig, but we were too weak, and the
frozen ground was too hard; we barely
dug to depth of six inches. Then we
fell on our faces and clawed up the
earth with our fingers; but we could
not dig deep, so we abandoned the
hope Of finding water there, and lit a
fire, in the hope that Islam Bal, the
man who had stayed behind with the
low on.
The Old LOp-NOt.
''In the city of Korla I prepared for
my journey to discover the old Lop-
Nor. I did discover it. By course was
south by southeast. I found the old
Lop-Nor in April, 1896. Then I march
ed on south to the new Lop-Nor-the
one discovered by Prshewalsky At the
end of April I returned to Khotan by
| Marco Polo's sGutherly route, and made
| my scientific observations on the way
| In Khotan I prepared for my journey
! through Thibet. This was a. very diff
| ficult journey; had to climb the Kwer
Lun range and cross on to the high
Thibetan plateaux at an altitude of &c.
900 feet 1t was a horrible country
| bare desert. sand and stones, here and
| there a salt lake. We reached Pekin
on March 2 OF last year. was Xe1g
we'll received. Ii Hung Chang invited
me to dinner. 1t was not a good din
| ner There We're two large rhnto=