BOATING ON NORTHERN LOP-NOR 899 
our bodies and arms, and exercise the utmost vigilance lest 
we ran aground upon a treacherous sandbank. 
Luckily we had no mishap. We threaded one sound 
after the other. Only once did we lay to under the shelter 
of a small sandy holm for about an hour, and that was in 
the middle of the large lake of N iaz-koll. After that the 
lakes were smaller in size, and finally we entered the river 
Ilek, and rowed along its smooth surface until we came 
to the village of Shirgheh-chappgan (Shirgheh’s Canal), 
Shirgheh being the name of a Lop-man. Some half-a- 
dozen families lived in the village ; and there I found my 
caravan, and Islam Bai and the other men grown rather 
uneasy at my prolonged absence. 
