Page 285 - The Tigris Expedition

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The Tigris Expedition
from convinced myself. 1 was so uncertain that I sat down with
Detlcf on the port side bench, watching the wall of mist that had
risen so suddenly to obscure the view of the distant mountains I had
seen so clearly with Norris and Asbjorn. I was almost falling asleep
with my back against the springy cane wall when something
happened to the low cloud bank we were sailing along. Its milky
: colour began to turn more yellowish, and many vertical stripes or
cracks began to show up very distinctly, as if the broken ice-edge of
a Greenland glacier was slowly throwing off a thin veil of night
mist. The mist lifted and dissolved. The clouds were gone. But left
naked in the moonlight were pale cliffs of lime or petrified clay,
smooth as crystal, rising to an even height of 600 to 700 feet all
along, as far as we could see under the sparkling sky. Obscured by
mist and camouflaged by a sea discoloured by erosion from the rock
V; itself, the coastline of Makran had been close beside us for hours.
S Excessive leeway or a northbound current had brought us out of
a our intended course after passing Astola island. But these cliffs had
l stopped our leeway and set us on a straight course. The same
• !
•*j elements that had pulled us towards the coast had been halted by the
cliffs themselves and forced to turn aside. Both ocean current and
airstream had been diverted and were forced to follow the lime­
stone wall, and Tigris with them. Out at sea the wind and water had
their freedom. In here the rocks were in command. And for once
1 they had arranged everything in our favour; they had even calmed
a the waves.
mnumt-^°rr'S bad discovered on his watch were the distant inland
were IT °f Baluchistan. Their 3000-foot peaks and crests
the evre agTSt,the Stars while we were still so far out at sea that
S T low'and deserts and the 700-foot coastal cliffs
in front
closer hr.616 ^Ct T °W C° s^ow UP against the sky. As ; we came
™eJin !Ver’ the Seaboard wal> «»e above our 1
heads, all
We were T mist’ an<d obscured the view beyond,
further awav fW S° tr'mm'ng the sail and forcing a course
string and alt bn Tu" Spooky.cliffs that we forgot to try Carlo’s
we shall never know if the ’"TT COncern was ccrtalnly warranted
erosion from the chalky difft W“ ^ £° Sha"°WS ^ ^
n is it that Makran was only a
gunshot away while
Baluchistan. we were admiring the high ridges in distant
inc7cin!TdCiiWit\n0 8rCat effort to hold our own and even

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