BOATING ADVENTURES 409 
we wanted to use our precious boat, we had to tow her 
round to the south shore, and then let her drift with the 
wind across the lake, taking soundings as we went. This 
method was inaugurated on October 4th, when the boat 
was towed by a horse through the shallow water to the 
middle of the southern shore. Then I and one of the 
Kirghiz, Mohammed Turdu, got into her. There was 
not much wind ; but it was cold, so that I was well 
wrapped up in my furs. Before we had got very far 
from the shore, one of those hurricane-like squalls from 
the south swept over the lake, ploughing up the water 
furiously before it. We lowered the sail and held fast to 
the sides ; for the boat was plunging like a restive horse. 
Our situation was critical : the boat was drifting out to 
the middle of the lake, and it was a long way to either 
shore. I was steering, when all of a sudden she dipped 
astern, and a sea broke over us, half filling the boat and 
wetting us to the skin. The goat-skin bag which held up 
the stern had got adrift, and was floating off over the 
water on its own account. Every wave that reached us 
broke right over us, although I tried to take the sting 
out of them with the oar, while the Kirghiz Mohammed 
baled away for dear life. 
Our position was really serious ; particularly when both 
the starboard goat-skins began to collapse, the wind oozing 
out of them with a shrill hissing sound, and the boat took 
a list to starboard. The seas broke over us from all sides, 
leaping upon us like malevolent sea-trolls, with wild 
dishevelled hair. 
Thus we drifted, tossing on the angry waves over un- 
known depths. I was afraid the other goat-skin bags would 
part company with us, or would lose their buoyancy before 
we reached the shore, and kept calculating whether or not 
I should be able to swim the intervening distance. Nor 
were my spirits raised by Mohammed Turdu becoming 
dismally sea-sick ; he would assuredly have been as white 
as a sheet, had he not already been as sunburnt as any 
gipsy. He baled the whole time, and baled double 
measure : on the one side water and on the other 
