524 
THROUGH ASIA 
out, that there was nothing but the terrible desert before 
us, and wisely judged that evil was in store for him if 
he followed us. Having therefore turned the matter well 
over in his mind, he made his choice, and turned back 
to the last lake we had left ; then, having drunk and 
cooled his coat with a good bath, he would no doubt 
make his way to Maral-bashi, although to get there he 
would have to swim over the Yarkand-daria. When 1 
got back to Kashgar, I made inquiries after the dog ; but 
I could learn nothing of him. Yolldash stuck to us faith- 
fully ; but poor beast ! his fidelity cost him his life. 
A strange and inexplicable feeling came over me, when 
I encamped for the first time in the dreariest desert there 
is on the face of the earth. The men spoke but little ; 
not one of them laughed. An unwonted silence reigned 
around the little fire of tamarisk roots. W^e tethered 
the camels for the night close to our sleeping-place, to 
prevent them from breaking loose and going back to 
the lake, where they had their last good browse. A 
deathlike silence held us all under its spell ; even the 
camels’ bells were frequently silent. The only sound to 
be heard was the heavy, long-drawn, measured breathing 
of the camels. Two or three stray moths fluttered around 
my candle inside the tent ; but no doubt they had 
travelled with our caravan. 
April 24th. I was awakened at half-past three in the 
morning by a hurricane-like wind from the west. Clouds 
of sand were swept into the tent. The storm whistled 
and rattled amongst the tent-ropes and tent-pegs, and 
the tent itself shook to such an extent that I expected 
every moment it would be blown away. The wind struck 
us from every quarter, for our camp was pitched in a sort 
of hollow, surrounded on all sides by dunes of drift-sand. 
There was one gigantic ridge on the north of us, another 
on the east, and yet another on the west, this last inclining 
one decree to the south. The surface of the dunes was 
corrugated all over, the lines of corrugation running from 
north to south. On the south there was a fourth dune, 
lying almost parallel to the third, and with an inclination 
