792 
THROUGH ASIA 
where the water came nearest to the surface. These 
so-called davans, or “passes,” can hardly be distinguished, 
except by changes in the perspective. As we mounted 
the imperceptible incline on the west side of a davan 
or accumulation of sand - dunes, the eastern horizon 
appeared to be quite near, and we could only count about 
a score or so of sand-dunes ahead of us. But when we 
reached the top of the pass, we were able to see over 
a vast expanse of the desert ocean, and could count the 
sand-dunes by the hundred. At the top of every pass 
therefore we made a short halt, to see which direction 
offered the best chance of easy progress. If from that 
position we were able to observe a tamarisk, we steered 
straight for it. Again and again it would be lost to sight 
behind the sand-dunes ; but just as often would re-appear. 
Even when it seemed to be quite close to us, we invariably 
had a long tramp before we reached it. 
On January 23rd the dunes rose up to nearly fifty feet. 
In a depression we nevertheless found two poplars with 
parched and cracked trunks, but the branches still alive 
and ready to burst into leaf. But that consummation was 
not vouchsafed to them ; the camels and donkeys ate them 
up greedily. For the animals this journey was a regular 
banting cure ; for, as it happened, it was the camels’ rutting 
season, when they have less appetite, but are all the more 
inclined to fight. After the first few days, however they, 
became tame and docile. 
By noon we reached a depression running from north to 
south and abounding in kottek, i.e. dead forest. Short 
tree stems and stumps, grey and brittle as glass, branches 
twisted like corkscrews from the drought, and sun-bleached 
roots were all that remained of the former forest. Beyond 
doubt a river ran there some time or other, and it could be 
none other than the Keriya-daria ; for, as we have already 
seen, the East Turkestan rivers invariably incline to shift 
their channels towards the east. A few of the poplars 
were still alive, the last survivors of a dying race, the last 
outposts on the edge of the murderous sands, left behind 
and forgotten, as it were, when the forests which accom- 
