248 BOTANIZING ON THE MOUNTAINS.

house and botanical garden for the Faculty of
Medicine. It was situated within half an hour’s
walk of Kounboum. Thither every year the grand
lamas and students of the medical section proceed
towards the close of summer, remaining generally
for about a fortnight, collecting medicinal plants on
the surrounding hills.

For some days the strangers enjoyed the most
profound solitude. They were alone with a lama
left in charge of the Lamasery. But the desert
became, after a time, alive; and towards the com-
mencement of September the lamas of the Faculty
of Medicine repaired to Tchogorton for the purpose
of botanizing. The disposable houses received all
they could contain, and the rest dwelt in tents,
sheltered by the great trees of the Lamasery.
Every morning, alter having recited their prayers
in common, drunk their buttered tea, and eaten
their barley meal, all the students in medicine
tucked up their garments and went forth on the
mountains, under the guidance of one of their pro-
fessors. Hach was provided with a long iron-
pointed stick and a small pickaxe; a leathern bag,
filled with meal, was suspended from the girdle,
and some carried at their backs great tea-kettles,
for the Faculty spent the entire day on the moun-
tain. Before sunset the troop would return, laden
with perfect faggots of branches and piles of plauts