From Pole to Pole

e Yarka

I was again at this village with a large caravan and many servants, my plan on this occasion being to travel through the whole of Eastern T

HOR'S BOAT ON TH

hite turban at the

than a thousand miles (Plate X.). It was 36 feet long by 8-1/2 broad, and was like a huge trough built of rough planks. A floor of boards was laid in the bow sufficiently large to serve as a support for my tent. Behind this was built a cubical cabin

e flooring. My bed and my boxes were arranged in the tent, a carpet was spread on the floor, and at the front opening was placed my writing-table, co

f sugar, tea, and groceries, saddles, weapons, and tools. The kitchen was

herous sand-banks were hidden below the surface. Fruit, vegetables, sheep, and fowls were carried on the smaller boat, which looked rather like a small farmyard. The hea

hing to thrust off if the boat went too near the bank. At the stern stood two other polemen, who helped to handle the boat. The small boat was managed by one man, Kasim, and as I sat at my writing-table I could see him pushing his vessel with his pole to right or left in search of the chan

oplars always predominate. They are not the tall, slender poplars which tower proud as kings above other trees, but quite a dwarf kind with a round, irregular crown. When the day draws near to a close I give the order to stop. Palta thrusts his pole into

able and see the moonlight playing in a streak on the surface of the river. All is quiet and silent around us, and even the midges have gone to rest. I hear only the brands

grapes. What more could a man want? It was very different when we were wandering on the endless sands. If I want to drink I have only to let down a cup into the river which gently ripples past the boat. The dogs keep me company, s

wood. Here Palta has plenty of work, for he has constantly to keep the boat off from some obstacle or other with the pole. Frequently we bump up against pop

heave to. It is to be hoped that we shall not turn broadside on or we shall capsize. "Let her go down as she likes,"

d and pulled, but all to no purpose. Then all the baggage was carried ashore, and with our united stren

at seems as though it were gliding along a canal in a park. The woods are silent, not a leaf is moving, and the water flows noiselessly. The polemen have nothing to do. Th

n silence of a temple reigned around, only the quacking of a duck being heard occasionally or the noise of a fox stealing through the reeds. A herd of wild boars lay wallowing in the mud on the bank. When the boat glided noiselessly by they got up, looked at us a moment with the greatest astonishment, and dashed like a roaring whirlwind through the beds of cracking reeds. Deer grazed on the bank. They s

r 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 th

of our coming through scouts, and when we arrived we were met by whole troops of horsemen. The village h

Ta

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 f

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 sa

s often as much as 200 feet high. This is the margin of the great sandy desert which occupies all the interior of

ay frozen in so fast we could walk on the ice around it. Out in the current, however, the water was open, and we broke asunder our fetters with axes and crowbars. A constant roar o

flotilla of canoes with lanterns and torches to clear the way, when suddenly the boat swung round with a bump, and we found that the river was frozen ove

nderin

he whole country here is so flat that with the naked eye no inequalities can be detected. Therefore the river often changes its bed, sometimes for short and sometimes for long distances. Formerly the river

where the Lop-nor formerly lay, and mapped out the old river-bed and the old lake. There I discovered ruins of villages and farms, ancient canoes and household utensils, tree trunks dry as tinder and roots of reeds a

d was dried up by degrees and the water in the lake evaporated. The sheet of water remained, indeed, for a long time, but it shrank up from year to year. At last there was not a drop of water left, and the whole country dried up. The poplar woods perished, and the reeds withered and were blown away by the wind. The men left their huts and moved down the new water channel to settle at the

constructed of bundles of reeds bound together; the ground within is covered with reed mats, and the roof consists of boughs covered with reeds. The men spend a large part of their time in canoes, which are hollowed poplar trunks, and are therefore long, narrow, and round at the bottom. The oars have broad blades and drive the canoes at a rapid pace. Narrow pass

to the water to swim to some islet or to the other shore of the lake, but before he is far out half a dozen canoes cut through the water and surround him. The men are armed only with their oars. The canoes can move much faster than the tiger, and one shoots quickly past him, and the men in the bow push his head under water with their oar-blades. Before the tiger has risen again the canoe is out of reach. The tiger snorts and growls and puffs madly, but in a moment another canoe is upon him and another oar thrusts him down deeper than before. This time he has

rm. On the coasts the variation is smaller, for the sea cools the air in summer and warms it in winter. In the Lop-nor country the rivers and lakes are frozen hard in winter, but in summer suffocating heat prevails. Men are tortured by great swarms of gnats, and cattle are devoured by gadflies. It has even hap

d the open water is studded all over with chattering birds. In late autumn they fly southwards

d C

time by easterly storms which roll like thunder over the yellow clay ground. In the course of ages these strong spring storms have ploughed out channels and furrows

." They deserve the name, for their sides are hardly ever washed by rain; but at their southern foot a few salt springs are to be

hey look well-fed, and the two humps are firm and full of fat. In spring and summer they can go without water for eight days, in winter for two weeks. For innumerable generations they have known where to find the springs: the mothers take their young ones to them, and when the youngsters grow up they i

our of a camping-ground long after the ashes have been swept away by the wind, and they avoid the spot. Tame camels passing through their country ex

ere the tracks all converge towards a valley between two hills, they probably lead to a spring. On one occasion whe