BOATING ADVENTURES 
413 
we could make no headway : the wind was too strong 
for us, and pitilessly drove us out to the very middle of 
the lake. It was pitch-dark, until the moon rose, and 
comforted us a little ; while Islam Bai, who was uneasy 
at our non-appearance, made a large fire at the camp, 
which served us for a lighthouse. The north gale was, 
however, of short duration, and by dint of hard rowing 
we managed to reach camp about midnight. 
One great advantage in navigating those waters was 
that we did not fear meeting other craft or being run 
down by careless roysterers returning home late of an 
evening. We were the unquestioned masters of the 
Little Kara-kul, and had plenty of sea-room to turn our 
boat in ; for the lake was about two miles long, two miles 
broad at the south end, rather more than half a mile at 
the north end, and a mile in the middle. 
I have made fun of our noble craft. Let me now say 
a word in its praise, as a sort of memorial on its grave. 
The completion of my soundings and the continuance of 
unfavourable weather put an end to our trips on the lake. 
I was sorry to have to take our pleasure yacht to pieces, 
and return the various materials to their respective pur- 
veyors, instead of sending it to the Ethnographical 
Museum at Stockholm ; for beyond a doubt it would have 
been one of the stars of the collection. It had indeed 
served to show the Kirghiz what sort of thing a boat is ; 
but it is doubtful whether it impressed them with any 
exaggerated admiration of Swedish navigation. 
Meanwhile we had ascertained the bathymetrical or 
depth relations of the Kara-kul, having taken 103 sound- 
ings altogether. All these I marked on an enlarged map, 
on which I afterwards drew out the curves of depth. The 
maximum depth was 79 Ret in the southern half of the 
lake ; in the middle it varied between 50 and 70 feet. 
Along the whole of the southern shore, where the glacial 
streams entered the lake, there was a fairly steep deposit 
of mud ; whereas on the north the moraine sank down 
to the lake level at a gentle inclination. At the north- 
west corner, where the Kara-kul stream issued from the 
