which arise about the strange ruins they have helped to preserve, and on my many walks across these swelling waves of sand I had grown almost fond of their simple scenery. Dandan-Uiliq was to lapse once more into that solitude which for a thousand years had probably never been disturbed so long as during my visit. For nie the recollection of this fascinating site will ever suggest the bracing air and the unsullied peace and purity of the wintry desert.
The day was cloudy and as my caravan slowly moved off about 11 a.m. a steady breeze met us from the north-east. About two miles from Rawak camp we passed a broad strip of ground where broken pottery, glass fragments, &c., cropped up again on the hard loess banks between the dunes. Beyond, all traces of ancient habitation ceased, and soon I saw also the last of the shrivelled dead trees standing in little chimps, the sight of which had become so familiar to me during these weeks.. As the day wore on the breeze increased sufficiently to treat us to the spectacle of a gentle dust-storm. The air became filled with a gray fog, and the dust carried by the wind threatened to efface the track marked by the footprints of Kasim and Turdi, who marched ahead as guides. So I had to keep our party, which now looked much reduced, close together. The sand-hills rose gradually as we advanced to the east, and I realised that the apprehensions of old Turdi about the difficulty of finding water north of the line which the camels had previously followed to and from the river, were not without foundation. At the foot of a great ridge of piled-up duties we had to halt for the night, though there was no chance of getting water there. Some withered roots of tamarisk supplied scanty fuel, but there was no living scrub to show where we might dig a well. Fortunately a small supply of water, or rather ice, was kept available for this emergency in the tanks which had already rendered good service at Dandan-Uiliq for storage.
I had at first intended to steer due east for Gharib-Chakma, which the Sub-Surveyor's map showed as the nearest point on the
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