DOWN THE KHOTAN-DARIA 639 
young forest. Further back from the stream the trees were 
much older, and in many places stood so close together that 
it was not easy to pass between them. The tendency of 
the forests on both banks is to unite and form one continu- 
ous forest ; and this will no doubt happen, as soon as the 
summer floods entirely desert this channel for the right- 
hand branch. In fact, the Inchicke-daria was only forty or 
forty-five yards wide as it was. After a long day’s ride we 
stopped for the night beside a pool in the bed of the river, 
at a place called Bedelik-utak (the Clover-Field Lot). 
May 26th. Kasim, Ahmed’s son, refused to go with us 
further than one day’s journey from Kuyundehlik ; it was 
dangerous, both on account of robbers and of tigers, to 
spend the night alone in the forest. I, and my two men, 
Islam and Kasim, continued our journey therefore without 
a guide. As the river became more and more sinuous in 
its course, we resolved to strike further into the island, 
which consisted of prairies, interrupted by low dunes and 
small groves of forest-trees. But as the river-bed made 
the more convenient road to travel by, we soon went back 
to it. Both banks were planted with luxuriant woods, so 
that we often seemed to be journeying through a park, or 
rather a tunnel of foliage. 
At length we reached the point wEere the Inchicke-daria 
rejoins the Khotan-daria. The forest opened out like a 
door, and before us was the level bed of the Khotan-daria, 
lying, in consequence of the more powerful erosive force of 
its larger volume of water, some five feet lower than the 
bed of the Inchicke-daria. We encamped a short distance 
below the confluence, in a tract called Bora-tyshkyn (Beaten 
down by the Storm). There was a little island in the 
river ; but so infested with ticks and scorpions that we pre- 
ferred to make our fire for the night in the bed of the river, 
at some distance from the bank. 
May 27th. As is generally the case in that part of the 
world after a clear night and a west wind, followed by a 
calm day, it was pretty warm on the morrow, and the heat 
began to make itself felt early in the day. For instance, 
at seven o’clock in the morning the thermometer registered 
