36 THE TARIM RIVER.
into which it then breaks up become slightly saline. The name Anar-köl was probably bestowed because of the resemblance which the arrangement of the little lakelets that constitute it bears to the disposition of the seeds inside a pomegranate ((mar). To the south-east rises the Southern Masar-tagh, and in the south-south-east the high sand-dunes of the desert, known here also as the Takla-makan.
At Kuruk-asti the Jarkent-darja divides into two arms. The one to the north, called the Kodaj-darja, or Swan River, bathes the southern foot of the Masar-tagh; though at the time of our visit it only contained a few pools of stagnant water. Ten days previously, or about the loth September, the river had ceased to enter that watercourse and directed itself entirely into the southern arm. Yet for fully two months, counting from the I st July, the Kodaj-darja had been a running stream, though with a far less volume of water than the Jarkent-darja. Lower down the Kodaj-darja is joined by the Kaschgar-darja, and then, as we shall presently see, the united stream reenters the Jarkent-darja, but beyond Avat. The following places, all situated on the great caravan route from Maral-baschi to Ak-su, draw their irrigation water from the river I am discussing, namely the Kodaj-darja, — Masaraldi, Tschahr-bagh, Tschighan-tschöl, Tumschuk, Tschadir-köl, Jar-kuduk, and Suget. As all the places just mentioned are entirely dependent upon the Kodaj-darja for the fertility of their fields and gardens, it was a serious matter for them when the current entirely abandoned that arm and began to flow through the southern arm only. Since that fatality happened, the several villages named have been restricted for their necessary supplies of water to wells and köls, or artificially dug reservoirs. Their chief concern was in the autumn to redivert the river into the bed of the Kodaj-darja, a project which the people purposed to carry out a month later by building a dam across the bed of the Jarkent-darja. For this object they had already brought over about a thousand poplars from the nearest forest. It was however somewat doubtful whether, owing to the power of the current, their efforts would be crowned with success. Changes in the bed of a river of that magnitude, brought about by physical laws, cannot be permanently controlled by such dams as these people are able to construct.
Of the two natural canals which connect Schor-köl with the Jarkent-darja at Kuruk-asti, the more easterly one issues from the lake by three arms; and of these three arms, again, the one that lies farthest to the east plunges down a cascade 1.5 m. high. The boiling cauldron at its foot affords excellent fishing. The apparatus used consists of a rod (salt) resembling an eel-spear, with two hooks (saischkak), each pointing downwards, fixed in its lower end. The hook, upon striking the fish, becomes detached from the rod or shaft, and is then only held fast to it by a cord 5o cm. long. Below this cascade the surface of the stream was 2 to 2I/2 m. lower than the level of the adjacent country. Schor-köl is, properly speaking, a marsh; and its shores are soft and boggy, and overgrown with luxuriant grass and reeds, the latter even invading the lake itself. Beside the western of the two principal arms which drain it stood a shepherd's hut (satina), inhabited by a single family, who in addition to tending their sheep, also had some cattle to look after. These were however their summer quarters only; in winter they usually occupy a more substantial dwelling on the right bank of the Jarkent-darja.
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