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EXPLORING THE LAKES OF TIBET. 193
the sail, one of the oars serving as a boom, the other as a
rudder, and away we went westwards at a spanking pace,
keeping pretty close to the shore. The wind was strong and
the lake rough, so that our little craft rolled a good deal,
making Kutchuk, who sat in the fore part, pale and sea-sick.
Ere long I perceived at the end of the lake two white dots
—
our tents—and a number of black ones round about them
—
our animals and men.
It turned out that the caravan had been stopped by a
broad stream, which issued from a large fresh-water lake
farther west, and emptied itself into the salt-water lake we
had just crossed. The stream was so deep that, when
Turdu Bai tried to ford it on horseback, he very nearly got
drowned. They had, therefore, encamped, and made up
a huge fire, which, however, we had failed to see because of
the great distance. Aldat fortunately shot a kulan, the
flesh of which was very welcome. The men caught another
little wolf-cub, which, however, took it so much to heart,
that it lay down and died at once.
Here we were, then, in a nice fix ! The river stopped our
path on the south, while east and west were the large lakes,
which it would take us several days to go round. But
we could turn back ? What ! and cross again that abomi-
nable slough of despond, which had threatened to swallow
us all up ? No, thank you ; we should take precious good
care not to return there until after the ground froze in the
autumn and was hard enough to bear us.
Forward then ! I undertook to get the entire company
safely across the stream, a proposal which was received by
the men with a certain amount of incredulity. The river
at its narrowest was 190 feet across and the current ran
strong. Marching the caravan to that spot, we unloaded,
collected everything in the nature of a rope that was fastened
round packages and sacks, and tied them all together into
one long strong cable, one end of which was secured on the
13
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