National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

> > > >
Color New!IIIF Color HighRes Gray HighRes PDF Graphics   Japanese English
0298 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 298 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

Captions

[Figure] Fig. 173. COURSE OF TARIM BEFORE FORMATION OF THE TWO BOLDSCHEMALS.

New!Citation Information

doi: 10.20676/00000216
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR Text

 

206

THE TARIM RIVER.

their history is in some respects different from the example I have already colnmented upon, I will add a series of sketches illustrating them as well; but they are such as to require no further explanation. About twenty minutes farther on we passed yet another similar pair of boldschemals, that on the left called Tajek Pavanejoleg-ottogho, while the one on the right was nameless. Both contained pools of water, and were embowered amid magnificent poplar forests of considerable age. All along we had on our right the Al-katik-köl, which, although now dried up, was once, I was informed, a lake of great size; but the canal or canals which

connected it with the river have disappeared without leaving any traces behind them The bottom of the lake (kölning-dschaji) is now completely overgrown with dense reeds, tamarisks, and other bush vegetation. The space between the river and the lake is occupied by forest and steppe, and on the west of the lake towers the high sand, although we only saw its yellow summits peeping above the reed-beds once or twice all day. I was told that there are a few solitary poplars still growing even on the same shore. Next came, on the left, a pool, the last surviving remnant of

some old boldschemal, and then immediately below it

`~   °°~~~gp    p    yet another. This last, which rejoices in the name

It g   4,\IV   :~~ ~; ®o m .•,--` `-9 of Jaghlik-tschökön-otak, is wonderfully distinct and

   .   beautifully formed, with the horn-like expansions of
the river penetrating into the old channel at each ex-

  •  t::\      ex-
    ibaatremity, and a crescentic pool at its inner or middle

V.1   ' ' • ::•   •   part.

  •            After that the river flows pretty directly towards

`9 ~~, . \   the south, though as usual with numerous sinuosi-

`° • ~~,a   ties, none of them however especially sharp. Upon

reaching some low sand, with vigorous poplar forest

growing amongst it, I was informed by my guides,

Fig. I73. COURSE OF TARIM BEFORE

FORMATION OF THE TWO   that we had here reached the end of the Al-katik-

BOLDSCHEMALS.   köl. Here again, along a very short stretch of river,

we discovered a third pair of boldschemals, one on each side, each plainly distinguishable and regularly formed, in all respects like those we have already noticed. The one on the right was called Arghamtschi-baghladi. Its neighbour on the left was without a name; it was formed in 1898, and was full of water, like its vis-à-vis. The water in their upper extremities approached within two or three meters of the present water-line level of the river, and there can be no doubt that, at the period of high flood, water flows out of the river into both these abandoned loops. This I infer partly from the contour of the surface, and partly from what I was told, namely that both boldschemals are first-rate fishing-grounds. For whilst it is true that there might be fish in the deeper parts of the loop at the time it was cut off, still these would soon have been all caught in the nets of the natives, so that it is only where the stock of fish is kept up by the repeated inflow of the river that one can legitimately speak of good fishing-waters. Although it is not known when these boldschemals were formed, I should say that the one on the right is the older, at all events it contained the greater quantity of water. But after all there cannot be any very great difference in their ages, for the very fact of the