156 
THROUGH ASIA 
twilight. The mountains on the east stood out like 
pale, chilly spectres against the background of the rapidly 
darkening sky ; whilst those in the west were like a 
black silhouette thrown upon the brighter — light blue 
and mauve tinted — atmosphere behind them. 
We halted not far from the shore of Great Kara-kul, 
taking shelter in an earthen hut, where we passed the 
night in warmth and comfort. 
On the morning of iith March 1 set off to cross the 
lake towards the south-west, taking with me a specially 
selected portion of the caravan, namely two Sart jighits, 
two hardy Kirghiz, all of us being mounted, with two 
pack-horses carrying the baggage. We also took with us 
provisions and fuel to last two days, as well as a tegher- 
metch (a small conical Kirghiz tent), an iron bar, axes, 
spades, and the sounding apparatus and line. Before 
leaving the rest of my people, I arranged with them to 
meet us at the next camping-station, not far from the 
south-east corner of the lake. 
Kara-kul is a saline lake, with an area of 120 to 
150 square miles, and is shut in by mountain-chains of 
considerable elevation. But on the north, east, and south- 
east the mountains recede sufficiently far from its shores to 
leave room for a strip of steppe-like plain, two or three 
miles in breadth. Its Kirghiz name, which means the 
Black Lake, is so far appropriate, in that in summer its 
waters do appear dark when contrasted with the mountains 
which hem it in, for even in that season broad patches of 
snow often continue to lie on the ground. Its maximum 
length is about twelve miles ; its maximum breadth 
about ten. A peninsula jutting out from the southern 
shore, and an island lying almost due north of the 
peninsula, divide the lake into two basins- — an eastern, 
which is extremely shallow, and a western, much the 
larger, and going down to abysmal depths. The object 
of my first day’s investigations was the eastern basin. 
About two and a half miles from the shore we came to 
a halt. The iron bar and axes were immediately brought 
into requisition. It cost us an hour’s hard labour to break 
