2 I 2 THE TARIM RIVER.
the stormy season, but the summer is comparatively quiet. My own experience is however that the summer is not much better than the spring. . We were now in the beginning of June, and yet had a storm of the worst description, lasting over three days; nor was this by any means the last storm of the season.
At sunrise on the Loth June this stubborn tempest at last began to subside, and it soon passed away entirely, and was succeeded by a perfect calm. Sudden and abrupt changes in the atmospheric conditions, from violent commotion to dead calm, or vice versa, are characteristic of this region. Sunrise in such a connection is however a mere figure of speech, for all day long we never caught a single glimpse of the great luminary, and there was not the faintest quickening of light anywhere to indicate its position in the sky. The air was still thick with dust, there was a sort of subdued twilight, and we no longer required the darkened spectacles which at other times are absolutely indispensable. Strange to say, a great part of this dust was dispersed in the night. During the night of the 9th it was so far clear abovehead that we were able to perceive faintly stars of the first magnitude. Next morning however the atmosphere was as thick as ever, although the night had been perfectly still. This curious circumstance was somehow connected with the cooling and evaporation of the earth during the night, though it is difficult to determine precisely what was the nature of the connection. On the other hand, it cannot be the warming effect of the sun which lifts the dust higher into the air, for, as I have said, of the sun we did not obtain a glimpse all day long; and the air was full of dust before the sun actually rose. After a few hours of calm the wind once more began to blow.
On the right we again passed a so-called tüschkiin (e. g. a »dip-down» or place where somebody has settled), in other words, a spot where the highway touches or »goes down» to the river. The locality generally is called Tuna-toghdi. Then, after making one acute bend to the east, the river flows tolerably straight for a time, passing Tschökön-otak, one of the headquarters of the hunters from Korla. The banks, especially the concave portions, are still planted with thick,
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