THROUGH ASIA 
510 
of hard clay, strong enough to bear the camels. Ad- 
vancing a short distance further, we found the marsh 
terminated in a long lake extending towards the north. 
We skirted its eastern side, keeping along the flanks of 
the tolerably high sand-dunes which sloped down to the 
edge of the pure blue water. The forest was still dense, 
in many places so tangled with thickets that we were 
compelled to make detours so as to get out into more open 
ground. But, as I said, for the most part we kept close 
to the shore of the lake, getting many a picturesque 
glimpse of it through the trees. The fresh green of the 
leaves contrasted strikingly with the deep blue water, and 
both against the grey haze in the background. 
The lake, which was nearly a couple of miles wide in 
its widest part, although it narrowed greatly towards its 
northern and southern extremities, has no doubt been 
formed by a branch of the Yarkand-daria, and fills during 
the season of the summer overflows. In the winter a 
large portion of the water remains, freezes, thaws again 
in the spring, and dwindles on till the summer brings it 
the usual increase. On the edge of the dunes I observed 
a higher shore-line, indicating that in the previous summer 
the level of the lake had been half a yard higher than it 
was at the time of our visit. 
At length we left the lake on our left, and soon became 
lost in a tangle of reed-beds of unprecedented thickness 
and the height of a man. As the camels forced their 
way onwards amongst the dry, brittle reed-stalks, there 
was quite an orchestra of crackling, rustling sounds. Only 
we who were riding had a free outlook. 
The reed-beds passed, we plunged into another forest, 
so thick that, after one or two narrow escapes of being 
swept off my camel by the branches, I was obliged to get 
down and go on foot. In a part of the forest where all 
the trees, although young, were dead, we literally stuck 
fast. The men were forced to get out their axes and hew 
a path. This occasioned a great loss of time ; but after 
considerable labour we managed to struggle out once 
more on to the level steppe. There, on the summit of 
