the disks do lose momentum through coming into collision with the banks and the edges of the ice that lines them. On the other hand, this drift-ice is not especially sensitive to the wind, and for the same reason as before, namely that it is carried along by strata of the stream upon which the wind exercises no influence. Where the river was sinuous the movement of the ferry-boat was manifestly checked by the drift-ice. So long as the river was free from ice, our ferry-boat's weight and momentum used to carry her across the eddies and stagnant places; but it was precisely in these spots that the drift-ice was accumulated in the greatest quantity, so that our clumsy craft could not fail to be checked by them. The movements of the drift-ice made it much easier to study the relations of the surface current. The strips of running water and the eddies looked as if they were marbled or stained; and the drift-ice was most packed where the current was swiftest.
This day the river described two larger loops, to say nothing of minor sinuosities. Although the high sand marched quite close to us on the right, it only touched the river with two or three projecting tongues; between it and the stream stretched a belt of kamisch steppe, the »prairie» of Central Asia, with poplars, now completely denuded of leaves. Forest was quite general, and old, as would be expected beside this portion of the river, which has not shifted its channel for a very long time; yet it was only at the sharp turns, where the banks were high, that the trees approached close to the edge. The channel here presents pretty much the same character and appearance that it did below Lajlik: it is moderately broad, full of alluvial deposits and mud-banks, and is inclosed between high, steeply scarped banks, crowned by ancient forests.
On the right we passed the termination of an artifical canal, Töttöru, which in the summer supplies with water a lake lying behind the nearest high dunes. On the left are Rahmaning-köli and Rahmaning-kölning-ajaghi-köl, both entirely cut off from the river, even a connecting canal is wanting; hence their water is bitter. Then comes the Ördäk jeghan-köl on the right and Iliasi-köli on the left. Next, near the right bank, is a patch of high, barren sand, called Ansasch-kum, after a pavan, or »hunter», who used it as a point of vantage whence to keep a look-out for game. I was assured that ten years before the wild camel had been seen at this the extreme outpost of the desert towards the north. Indeed, wild camel are said occasionally to visit the Opghan-darja, where they are hunted by the men of Schah-jar. Kamber Schang-ja declared, that in this district seven wild camels had fallen to his own gun alone. All the inhabitants of this part of the Tarim know well that wild camels do exist somewhere in the desert, and the statement made about its being at Ansasch-kum is all the more likely, because I myself in 1896 found the animal's tracks a long way to the north of the point where the Kerija-darja finally dies away in the sand.
A forest-tract on the right is called Sägis-tscheke. The dry bed of the Kurugen-ögen enters the Tarim from the left just above the place where we encamped. At the period of high flood, the water of the Tarim ascends it for a short distance, but as soon as the big river drops it flows back again. In the localities we had recently passed through small marginal lagoons were very numerous, and they still continued to be present for a good distance lower down. They possess one
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