CHAPTER V. 
fROM LAKE ARAL TO TASHKEND 
OUR miles north of Terekli we plunged into the 
r Desert of Kara- hum (the Black Sand). Vegetation 
grew scantier and scantier, and in a short time we were 
immersed in an ocean of sand. This region was at one 
time covered by the waters of the Aralo- Caspian Sea, a 
fact evidenced by the prevalence of shells of Cardmm and 
Mytiliis, which are said to have been found far in the 
desert. 
It was a moonlight night when I arrived at the little 
station of Konstantinovskaya, where the travellers’ “ room” 
was merely a Kirghiz kibitka (tent), not very inviting at 
that period of the year. From this place to Kamishli-bash, 
a distance of eighty miles, Bactrian camels are generally 
used, as horses are not strong enough to drag the convey- 
ances through the barkhans or sand-hills, which occur 
along that portion of the route. 
I had not been waiting many minutes at Konstanti- 
novskaya when I heard a well-known gurgling sound, and 
the fantastic silhouettes of three majestic camels became 
visible in the moonlight. They were harnessed all three 
abreast to the tarantass, and when the driver whistled set 
off at a steady trot. Their pace was swift and even, and 
they often broke into a gallop. 
Ere long I noticed that the surface gradually sloped 
towards the south-west. A thick bank of vapour hung 
over Lake Aral in the same direction ; while in the north 
and east the sky was clear. Between the stations of Alti- 
kuduk and Ak-julpaz the road ran close by the side of the 
lake, often not more than half-a-dozen paces from it. The 
