OVER THE ARKA-TAGH 
1015 
trail, driving his donkey on before him. I was really 
sorry for the poor fellow at having to travel all that long 
way by himself, but he was only too glad to get away 
from us. He had plotted to cheat us, but had fallen into 
his own trap : it had not been quite so easy to deceive 
us and rob us as he had imagined. 
The sick camel was now mending nicely, and got 
through the day’s march very creditably. 
The ground was very favourtible for the animals, for 
we kept close to the lake side, and so escaped the eternal 
up-and-down hill, which was so exceedingly tiring. The 
green slaty rocks fell tolerably steeply towards the lake, 
but at their foot, and between them and the water, was 
a gravel slope, stretching a considerable distance into the 
lake. The strip of shore varied in breadth, though in 
general it was narrow'. The ground w'as hard and very 
little cut up by rivulets. The w'ater of the lake w’as 
perfectly clear, but salt, and at noon had a temperature 
of 41° Fahr. (5° C.). A narrow fringe of w'hite scum, 
mingled with brown decayed algcB, rocked on the waves 
as they beat upon the shore. The only living creatures 
we observed w'ere wagtails and Hies. East and w’est there 
were magnificent view.s- — the winding shore of the lake, 
with its mountain offsets, showing a fascinating interplay 
of colour effects, the slightly crumpled surface of the lake, 
and arching all in a sky of the purest blue. 
This lake, like all those which we encountered later, 
was long and narrow, a form evidently due to the lati- 
tudinal mountain -rano:es on the north and south. The 
farther we advanced tow'ards the east, the more indented 
and irregular was the outline of its shore. In places we 
came across small lagoons, and round them the ground 
was soft and muddy. Shortly before reaching the end 
of the lake, which terminated in a creek, we had to climb 
over another cluster of low hills. Then we came to the 
yellowish-red stream, which flowed into the creek at the 
end of the lake, through a delta with innumerable small 
arms and several large ones. 
The stream was bordered on the left (as we rode 
