ON PRZHEVALSKY’S LOP-NOR 
909 
ing sheaves, or bent back over, so as not to fall forward 
and choke up the lode or channel. 
The primary object of these chappgans, which intersect 
one another in a labyrinthine maze in every direction, and 
in which a stranger alone would infallibly be lost, is not 
however solely to serve as waterways. They are used 
principally for catching fish. We rowed over hundreds 
and hundreds of nets, and in the clear transparent water 
I could see countless shoals of fish swimming along under- 
neath us. We caught a few as we went along and cooked 
them. Each family has its own chappgans, in which they 
alone are entitled to set their nets. 
How the men found their way through such a confusing 
labyrinth I was puzzled to understand. Every now and 
again the channel we were in would open out into a small 
round basin fenced in on all sides by reeds ; and from 
it would radiate half-a-dozen other basins, all exactly alike. 
As soon as the canoe put her nose into one of these 
lagoons, the boatmen dipped in their oars and made her 
skim across the open pool like a wild-duck, so that the 
water hissed off her bow, and I could not help fancying 
that in a minute or so we should dash our heads ao-ainst 
a wooden wall. But no : with a swish and a crackle, 
the reeds bent apart to right and to left like curtains, 
and we glided into the next narrow tunnel-like chappgan. 
Thus we raced merrily on the whole day long. At 
intervals I got a clear glimpse or two of the slowly 
dwindling Tarim. Some of the lakes we rowed across 
were sheets of considerable size ; in one of them, Yok- 
kanak-koll, I sounded the greatest depth of any measure- 
ment I took in the southern Lop-nor, namely, fourteen 
feet. Thus the lakes are very shallow ; in fact they were 
more like marshes than lakes. 
In the afternoon we shot out into the largest of the 
lakes, Kanat-baglagan-koll {the Lake of the Tied Wing), 
probably so called from the fact that some time or other 
a wild -duck’s wing was tied to the reeds to serve as a 
sign-post. We had the greatest difficulty in the world 
to wriggle across to the northern side ; but as the shore 
