8i8 
THROUGH ASIA 
in which it was flowing at the time of my visit. This 
year however the winter w'ater had begun to creep back 
into the eastern arm ; and they expected the summer 
floods would follow it. The two channels thus alternate 
with each other. Every year the sediment which the 
stream brings down settles a hand’s-breadth thick at 
the bottom, thus raising the bed, and driving the water 
to seek a lower level in the other channel. At the 
extremity of the eastern branch, wTich was accompanied 
all the way by woods, there were several small salt 
lakes, situated four day’s-journeys from the forest region 
of Katak. 
I call attention to this alternation in the river’s bed, 
because it may serve to illustrate the ease with which 
streams change their channels in this level country. We 
were destined to find the same conditions at Lop-nor, 
only that in the case of the Keriya-daria it is a river 
which shifts its bed, whereas at Lop-nor it is a lake which 
changes its situation. 
On February 4th we were the guests of the shepherds 
who live in the woods of Arka-chatt (the Further Island — 
or strip of land between two river-beds). The next day 
the physical conditions of the country assumed a very 
different aspect. On both sides the river sent off in- 
numerable branches, which, generally mere ribbons of 
ice, sometimes cut off entirely from the main stream, 
wound away into the woods and disappeared. The belt 
of woodland as well as the reed-beds became gradually 
broader, so that we seemed to be marching across a sort 
of tropical delta. So far as the eye could reach, there 
was not a sand-dune to be seen. How far would these, 
for us, so favourable conditions continue towards the 
north ? Were these woods connected with the forests 
of the Tarim ? These questions were continually in my 
mind. Every day we came across shepherds, who did 
not know how far the river went. On the evening of 
the 5th we encamped at Chugutmek with four shepherds, 
who were in charge of 800 sheep and six cows. 
At Sarik-keshmeh, a place we reached on February 6th, 
