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0359 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 359 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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[Figure] Fig. 227. Vertical section of a lake.

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doi: 10.20676/00000216
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THE TOGHRAKLIK-KÖL AND THE KARAUNELIK-KÖL.   257

a slope of I in ï 5 m. Thus the curve of the contour forms here a convex angle; whereas the corresponding angle on the eastern shore is concave, as indeed will readily be seen when it is remembered, that the dunes descend at an angle of 33°, while the lake-bottom has a slope of only two or three degrees. The difference between the opposite shores in this respect is in part due to the wave-action, which is especially vigorous on the west shore, washing the loose materials out towards the middle of the lake, while the strip of shore is held together by the vegetation and has but a gentle slope upwards. In a lake so oval and regular in outline as the southern basin of the Karaunelik-köl there is every likelihood that the wave-action will in the course of time obliterate all the irregularities in its bed, or at any rate make the transitions as easy and as gradual as is exhibited in the fig.

Fig. 227.

The lake's northern and smaller basin is an even more beautiful and convincing illustration of the typically shaped bajir as I have theoretically conceived it. Here at only about a score of meters from the eastern shore we obtained a depth of 6.75 m., and on that side the isobathic lines are crowded together, whereas approaching the western shore they fall much wider apart. In the southern basin the maximum depth is 9.4o m., in the northern it is only 7.82 m., and here again it occurs nearest to the south-east corner. Nor is it at all surprising to find that the greater depth occurs in the southern basin, for the greater the area of a bajir depression the more it is exposed, and that for a longer time, to the erosive action of the wind; and as the north-north-east wind is probably more frequent than the south-south-west wind, it is the southern part of the bajir which suffers most from wind excavation. From the fact of all the topographical names being confined to the eastern shore, it would appear that the fishing is best on that side, a consequence probably of the greater depth and greater tranquillity of the water.

The water of the Karaunelik-köl was of different shades of colour owing to the canal being open, so that a lively current was flowing in from the river. The grey muddy fluvial water spread itself out fan-like for some distance from the mouth of the canal; but at the distance of a couple of hundred meters it became merged in the pure emerald green water of the lake itself. The water in the southern basin was clearer still, and as pure as that of the purest wellspring. Although this, when seen against the sand or the sky, appeared green, nevertheless, when contrasted with the fresh and vivid green of the poplars, it appeared to be rather a blue. Anyway these crisp freshwater lakes, silent and lifeless though they are, strike one as both fascinating and sublime when one comes upon them slumbering amid the stifling heat of the desert. A most curious, a characteristic and paradoxical phenomenon — to stumble across lakes like these in a region which is the very last of all in which one would expect to find anything in the nature of a lake! Although they suggest several more or less intricate morphological and hydro-

Hedin, Tourney in Central Asia.   33