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0251 Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.1
Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.1 / Page 251 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000216
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THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE RIVER AND THE SAND.   169

stationary. We encamped beside the canal of Ullugh-köl. On the 8th May bright, crystal water was flowing out of it into the muddy river; but on loth May a stream of 6.667 cub.m. was flowing into it, and so taxing the river to that extent.

May 2 I st. 1900. In the district of Ullugh-köl the river forms three sharp loops, one succeeding immediately to the other, like the limbs of the letter M or W. The neck of land at the base of the middle bend measures 95 m. across, and is called Artilma; while the name of Supa-Bek-ötgen-togh, at the vertex of the loop, proves that there was once a dam there, which has however been destroyed by the stream. The first of the south-going loops threatens, like that of Daschi-köl, to penetrate into the Ullugh-köl; while the second is making a violent attempt to undermine the abutment of sand which overhangs the east shore of the lake. Accordingly in this loop the river is as usual broader and shallower than in other places in the same locality. The next bend, going towards the north, furnishes an interesting observation. On the left shore of the bend there is a plant-grown dune called Arpakumgen-dung, or the Sand-hill of the Corn, and at its northern foot runs the old river-bed of Kudschek mentioned above. Immediately below this latter is a small detached patch of bare sand known as Ighis-dung, or the High Hill, with two or three deserted huts on its southern slope. At the foot of this hill again lies a lake, Kuntschekan-uktusu, not visible from the river, although connected with it by a canal which carries water at the season of high flood; this however was at the time of our visit stopped. Directly opposite is the gap in the wall of sand which gives access to Bajir-köl, and here is the little village of Muhamed Supa-uj, inhabited by two families of in all 13 persons. Even the names of the villages in this part of the country are merely temporary. In lieu of Bajir-köldake-uj, or the Homestead beside Lake Bajir, one may use equally well the name of the most important of its inhabitants, Muhamed Supa, who is still living there — a thing which can only happen in a newly settled country. But the interesting fact I desired to call attention to is the presence of barren sand-dunes on the left bank of the river. Were this not a fact out of the common, the dunes on that side would not be distinguished by special names. But this one, although it does not exceed I o m. in altitude, is called Ighis-dung, or the High Hill. So far as I remember, the only other place along this section of the river — in which it makes its way past the desert lakes — where I noticed low dunes on the left bank was at Karaul. What, then, does this small surviving patch of sand tell us? If it fails to become overgrown, or be held together by tamarisks or other steppe-plants, it must ere long inevitably disappear. Well, it tells us, that at some time or other the country on the east side of the

river was covered with sand too, although the greater part of it is now levelled down in consequence of the migration of the river and its tendency to divide into deltaic arms. We have but to imagine the river in some fit of caprice flinging itself into the basin of the Ullugh-köl, breaking through the rampart of sand to the south-east of it, and then returning to its present bed, at some point, say, below Kum-köl. Nor is it too bold a supposition to imagine the river breaking through the sand-dunes in this way, for not only is it supported by the river's tendency to keep shifting to the south-west, but we have with our own eyes been witnesses of a similar breach through the sand on the outskirts of the desert (Nov.

Hedin, Journey in Central Asia.   22