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142 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
Chernoff put himself on one of the frames, the crazy affair
threatened to capsize, until I took my place on the other,
and so restored the equilibrium. There we sat straddlings,
half-naked, with our legs dangling in the water. Our
backs acted as sails, and away we went, slowly drifting
before the wind, straight across the lake towards the tent.
As we advanced, the wild-duck kept rising in tumultuous
flocks above our heads. Every wave that passed us wetted
us to the skin ; but we had no time to think of such things ;
we had to hold on tight and keep our balance, to prevent
ourselves from being washed " overboard."
The wind chilled our backs, so that by the time we
reached the middle of the lake I had had more than enough
of it, and wished I were well on shore. In fact, we got so
cold that our teeth actually chattered. And no sooner
did we land than we flung off our clothes, dried and warmed
ourselves, and then went to bed to get our blood in circu-
lation again.
At sunset the sky assumed a remarkable appearance.
The whole of the eastern horizon turned a strange fiery
yellow, as though it were on fire. I knew from experience
what that meant, and soon the " black tempest " was
sweeping like thunder across the earth, and the waves
were beating with frenzied fury against the shore, so that
my tent was smothered with spray and had to be moved
further back. The next few days we travelled beside
the Kara-koshun, searching for the fishing settlements.
Once we saw a black column of smoke rising skywards ;
it showed that the Lop-men were out in their canoes and
had set fire to the reeds. At length we reached their
village of Kum-chapghan, after traversing a labyrinth of
marshes and connecting strips of dry ground. At Kum-
chapghan we rested, living almost entirely upon fish.
From that village I made two excursions by canoe across
the marshes and lakes, penetrating as far as the reeds
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