872 
THROUGH ASIA 
river Tarim itself. The prevailing winds in the Lop 
region blow from the east and east-north-east, and sand- 
storms from the same quarters are common in March, 
April, and May. So long as we remained in the neigh- 
bourhood of the quadruple lake the atmosphere was calm, 
but no sooner did we leave it than a buran came on, and 
continued, with the exception of a lull of a couple of days, 
all the time we were travelling in that neighbourhood. 
The power and force of these constantly recurring storms 
is almost inconceivable : they literally drive back the water 
of the lake and heap it up along the western shore. Then 
comes the drift-sand of the desert and fills up the gap left 
in the east. Nor was evidence wanting that this lake- 
complex formerly extended farther towards the east than 
it does at present. All along its eastern side there was 
a chain of small salt lagoons, marshes, and pools, which 
had been cut off from the lake by the encroachments of 
the sand in quite recent times. Closely parallel with them 
there was also a narrow belt of forest, for the most part 
poplars and tamarisks. Three stages of development were 
plainly distinguishable— far out in the desert, on the east, 
was a dead forest (kottek) ; then amongst the sand-dunes 
which approached nearest to the east shore of the lake fine 
living trees ; and lastly, on the actual shore of the lake, 
young and tender saplings, the beginnings of a forest. 
Now trees cannot live without water. Hence the 
inference is unmistakeable, that the lake has moved 
westwards, and that the forest has followed the lake. 
The dead poplar trees which now stand far to the east, 
out in the midst of a dreary waste of sand-dunes, must 
formerly have stood on the shore of the lake, and drawn 
their nourishment from its waters. 
There can hardly be a doubt that this long quadruple 
lake is all that remains of the old Lop-nor. The Ilek, 
which enters at its northern extremity, issues again at 
its southern extremity, that is from Arka-koll (the Farther 
Lake), and winds southwards with the most capricious 
meanderings, leaving about three miles to the east the 
ruins of the old Chinese fortress of Merdek-shahr. Then 
