Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/91

72 who, notwithstanding his high-sounding title, signifying, as Zaman Beg informed us, "most learned of men," is quite illiterate. Here we halted eight days, and took astronomical observations for longitude and barometrical measurements of altitude, finding the latter to be 2500 feet above sea-level. The height of Lake Lob is 2200 feet, and therefore the fall of the Tarim, notwithstanding its rapid stream averaging three feet per second, is only slight. From Akhtarma our road lay down the Tarim, now approaching its bank, now retreating to some distance from it. There is no valley in our sense of the word; neither the configuration nor quality of the soil changes even on the very bank of the river. The same loamy plain, the same drift-sand as in the desert, continue to within a hundred paces of the water. The very limited belt of irrigated land is only denoted by the marginal belts of trees, thick reeds in some places, or marshes and lakes in others. Travelling here with camels is extremely difficult, for you have to pass now through woods, or thick, prickly jungle; now