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A GLORIOUS FOREST. 41
clay ;
but the only result was, that she bit deeper and
deeper into it, until at last she looked as though she were
cased in plaster of Paris. Despite our utmost efforts, she
refused to budge. What was to be done ? We were only
about ten or twelve yards from deep water. Luckily
the old ferry-boat turned a few points in her muddy bed,
softening the clay ; and after floundering about her again,
we managed by the most desperate efforts to get her once
more afloat.
After drifting for about another hour we came to the
lowest cataract. It was considerably higher than the
first, and it really looked as if we must unfailingly capsize.
All the men voted unanimously for putting the baggage on
shore again. We did so, and all the Mussulmans without
exception begged to be excused from participating in the
shipwreck. For my own part I could not resist the tempta-
tion of such a magnificent " tobogganing hill." By means
of a rope fastened to the ferry-boat’s stern, some of the
men, wading out into the river, let her ghde down gently
and bravely to the edge of the fall. I took my stand on
the fore-deck with the boihng, thundering water immedi-
ately in front of me. " Let go !
" I shouted, and like an
eel the vessel ghded over the " threshold." " Rang !
" down
went the prow crash upon the water below, and immediately
afterwards it was followed by the stern ; and so that danger
was safely passed.
Karaul-dung, a solitary hill by the river-side, affords
from its top an extensive view of this grey winding stream,
which bores itself so deeply into the silent woods of
Turkestan. Looking south-east, we saw beyond the greenery
a sort of yellow gleam. The telescope showed it to consist
of immense yellow waves—the drift-sand of the desert
" ocean," the terrible, suffocating Desert of Takla-makan.
Below that point the river contracts until it resembles
a narrow canal, sometimes only about 20 feet wide ; but
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