does occur for a time are those in which the slope is more decided than usual, as, for instance, in the Kötäklik-darja, the Jangi-darja, and the Jumalak-darja; but even there its only object is to make the inclination uniform throughout, that is to say, no swifter than it is both above and below the new straight river-bed. But before this result can be accomplished, the erosion which attacks the sides of the stream has ample time to call into being the many serpentine loops which diversify the river's course. Meanwhile the bottom erosion, slight though it is, has already ceased, and the result it aimed at is accomplished simply and solely by the more appreciable effects of lateral erosion.
Just above our camp at Busrugvar, we found on the right bank a small marginal lagoon, with connecting channel, which is closed as soon as the high water begins to subside in the summer. After that the lagoon gradually shrinks in consequence of evaporation and absorption into the ground, and the water that remains behind becomes slightly brackish. This is considered to improve the flavour of the fish which are imprisoned in the lagoon, and which are caught as soon as the water has sufficiently subsided. And the same things apply to all the other small lagoons in this locality.
Fig. I27. RIVER-SCENERY ABOVE BUSRUGVAR, NOV. 27TH.
Above Busrugvar the river is split into several arms by the alluvial deposits. The men who acted as my guides in this locality told me, that two years before they had been employed to conduct a Chinese official, who was bringing some 3o or 4o canoe-loads of wheat from Saldam, to store them in the sang, or »granary»,
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