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64 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
with my eyes rivetted on the minute figures and signs on
my map, I hailed tliis as a splendid opportunity for a most
delightful diversion—a sail. We rigged up the canvas skiff,
bamboo mast, shrouds, sail, steering-oar. But I took
nobody with me. The men were almost seasick when they
saw me skim off like a flying wild-duck, barely touching the
surface of the water. The mast creaked ominously. But
what would it have mattered even if it had sprung, when
there was a whole forest of slender young trees close beside
me ? All I cared for just then was the glorious motion of
skimming along before the tempest. With the mast bent
like a bow and the sail blown out like a ball, the banks
shrouded in the dust-haze, the river broad and tossing with
foam-crested waves in front of me, I had a delightful sail.
The wind howled and whistled and roared all around. The
elements were in uproar, celebrating the wildest of autumn
carnivals, with yellow chaplets in their hair ! I could hear
nothing but the sound of winds and waters. Yet when I
heard the dry branches snapping, I knew that I was getting
dangerously close to the bank, and made haste to steer
farther out into deep water. What are all the theatrical
spectacles in the world compared with one such day as
that ! To be absolutely alone in the midst of a devastating
storm, especially in the forest wilderness of the Tarim, is
at once an impressive and a sublime experience such as is
not readily forgotten.
At length, thinking I had gone far enough, I put in to
the bank, drew up my little craft into a sheltered position,
furled the sail, kindled a fire, boiled water for tea, and took
my simple breakfast in solitude. Then I drifted back with
the current to the ferry-boat, and having made the black
cabin comfortable, I proceeded to develop the photographic
plates which I had recently taken.
At length the tempest exhausted itself, and we were able
to continue. Beside a hut on the bank we saw a man
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