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154 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
sterility. The lake, however, was a lovely sheet of ]water,
one wide expanse of glittering crystal blue. We were
paddling due south and the sun shone in our faces, making
the lake like a heated oven. It was only by dint of con-
tinually sprinkling my thin white clothes with water that
I was able to keep myself in any degree cool.
The day was spent in strenuous and successful labour, in
sounding and measuring the lake. When I climbed to
the top of a high dune to study the country around, the
sand was so intensely hot that it burnt through my shoe-
soles. And after returning to the canoes it was delightful
to sit for awhile with my feet dangling in the water. But
we were soon awakened out of our dolce far niente by Kirgui
Pavan, who pointed to the top of the steep dunes on the
opposite or eastern side of the lake, and cried in a ques-
tioning undertone, " Kara-buran " (Black Tempest) ? A
dark column was rapidly lifting itself above the horizon,
bearing on its shoulders a wreath of lighter-coloured clouds.
Then several others mounted up on both sides of it, and
gradually they all fused together, making one vast cloud
with a serrated upper edge. Everybody knew what that
meant.
For one moment we paused to consider what we should
do. The Lop-men voted unanimously for waiting where
we were. Kirgui Pavan, whilst not at all afraid, said that
it would be difficult to paddle across the biggest and deepest
basin of the lake, which separated us from the entrance to
the canal, before the storm burst. Had we been able to
keep along the shore, it would not have been so dangerous ;
but the western shore where we were was penetrated by
a broad deep fjord, so that whether or no we had to cross
the open ptirt of the lake.
Nevertheless, I decided to risk it. In a moment every
man was in his place and the paddles in the water, and
in the course of two or three minutes we were well out from
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