A VISIT TO A BREEDING-PLACE OF THE PELICAN. 251 
because the effect which the ever-changing islands make defies all 
description. Of what avail was our attempting to signal? At the 
next moment the reed-bush we had just bent over stood in the 
exactly opposite direction, and the passage we had only just 
forced with infinite trouble had disappeared without leaving a 
trace. What little strength we had left hardly sufficed to get us 
back to the open lake; and here we rowed to and fro without an 
object. Noon could not be far off; the heat was scorching. In 
due time we looked forward to another night in the boat, and had 
a great mind to shoot Sea Swallows and devour them raw; when 
all at once—we hardly believed our eyes—at the edge of a distant 
reed-bed a boat appeared, similar in shape to a Pelican, guided by 
two men in their shirt-sleeves, as a look through our telescope 
showed us. We quickly fired off our guns and shouted with all 
our might. They soon saw and came towards us. They were 
fishermen from Kara-Orman whom we knew. They listened to 
our tale of sufferings with a significant smile, and merely said that 
many had lost their way on the “‘ Kuibide”—that they themselves 
had frequently missed it, although they were often this way. 
They appeared to us, however, like ministering angels, and we 
indeed thanked heaven, for no other boat probably would cross 
the lake this week, the peasants being all in the fields and absent 
from the village till Saturday. For some reason or other these 
two went to the fishing-hut on the “ Girla,” where we proposed to 
go, and since we expected to find food and drink there sooner 
than elsewhere, and did not care to return home without some 
object, we rowed along with them. Now we entered the reeds in 
quite a different place, and after rowing a few yards we reached 
a narrow canal, which some ten minutes later ended in the 
“Girla Litkow.” Upon this we now proceeded. The Girla is 
very deep and broad, and goes a great distance through the Delta. 
Half-an-hour later we reached the fishing-hut, a little hut situated 
romantically below high willow trees, with a little kitchen-garden, 
which we certainly never expected to find here. A friendly 
old fisherman greeted us and asked us to come in. He was 
soon acquainted with our adventure, and took pains to get us 
some food as quickly as possible. This consisted of fish and 
“mamelika.” It is needless to say we never sat down to dinner 
with keener appetite. After the important business was over, 
and we felt restored to life, we enquired whether it was possible 
