s seen on the bank. Some shepherds were watching their
flocks, and their dogs began to bark. The men gazed at the ferry-boat
with wonder and alarm as it floated nearer, and no doubt thought that it
was something ghostly, for they faced about and ran with the dust flying
about their sheepskin sandals. I sent two men ashore, but it was quite
impossible to catch up with the runaways.

Farther down we passed through a district where several villages stood
near the banks. They had learned of our coming through scouts, and when
we arrived we were met by whole troops of horsemen. The village headmen
were also present, and were invited on board, where they were regaled
with tea on the after-deck.

THE TARIM

The farther we went the smaller became the river. The Yarkand-darya
would never reach the lake, Lop-nor, where it discharges its water, if
it did not receive a considerable tributary on the way. This tributary
is called the Ak-su, or "White Water," and it comes foaming down from
the Tien-shan, the high mountains to the north. After the rivers have
mingled their waters, the united main stream is called the Tarim.

The weather gradually became colder. One morning a dense mist lay like a
veil between the wooded banks, and all the trees, bushes, and plants,
and the whole boat, were white with hoar frost. After this it was not
long before the frost began to spread thin sheets of ice over the pools
on the banks and the small cut-off creeks of stagnant water, and we had
to press on as fast as we could to escape being frozen in. Breakfast was
no longer laid on land, but on the after-deck of the ferry-boat, where
we built a fireplace of clay, and round this the men sat in turn to warm
themselves. At night we travelled long distances in the dark. We had
persuaded two natives to go with us in their long, narrow canoes, and
they rowed in front of us in the darkness with large Chinese paper
lanterns on poles to show us where the deep channel ran.

The woods on the bank gradually thin out, and finally come to an end
altogether, being replaced by huge sand-hills often as much as 200 feet
high. This is the margin of the great sandy desert which occupies all
the interior of Eastern Turkestan. The people in the country round about
are called Lopliks, and live to a great extent on fish.

During the last few days of November the temperature fell to 28.8 deg.
below freezing-point. The drift ice which floated down the river became
thicke