THE RETURN TO KHOTAN 
915 
I was right glad to have my face turned towards the 
west ; for after I reached Khotan, there would only remain 
one part, the last, of my great scheme unaccomplished, 
namely, the exploration of Northern Tibet. Moreover I 
was eager to get to Khotan for another reason. In 
Kara-shahr I heard from Consul-General Petrovsky, that 
he had sent on to Khotan a big packet of letters for me 
from Sweden. What had been happening at home during 
all my long absence ? That packet of letters drew me 
westwards with the force of a powerful magnet. When 
therefore the pertinacious storm from the east again began 
to blow just as we left Abdal, driving clouds of dust and 
sand before it, it seemed to me as if Heaven itself were 
minded to help us. 
As I have before mentioned, these desert-storms are 
both grandiose and awe-inspiring. Along that portion of 
its course in which the Tarim, in ordinary circumstances, 
flows towards the east, the surface current, under the 
impact of the wind then blowing, flowed in the exactly 
opposite direction. For instance, whilst at Abdal the 
level sank sixteen to twenty inches, in the Kara-buran, 
to the west, it rose eight to twelve inches. Thus the 
lake expanded to an appreciable extent. When you are 
riding before such a storm, you have some difficulty In 
keeping your seat. Every moment you feel as If you 
would be lifted bodily out of the saddle. The horses 
stagger as though they were drunk, and the camels 
straddle wide so as not to lose their equilibrium. 
Although the lake of Kara-buran had thus widened its 
borders, we nevertheless rode across it, that is to say, 
those portions of it which have dried up since the date of 
Przhevalsky’s visit. After that we came to the lower 
course of the brook of Charkhlik, which would empty itself 
into the lake but that shortly before reaching it it dis- 
appears In low-lying ground. 'Phis brook also felt the 
effects of the storm ; it too turned back in its course for a 
space, flooding the lower grounds on both sides to a great 
distance and blotting out the track. For the most part we 
rode at haphazard, through six or eight inches of water ; and 
