430 THE TARIM DELTA.
which joins the Kok-ala in the district of Tasch-tschukan, was abandoned 4 years ago, and is now completely dry. This we had for some distance on our right, though afterwards it flowed further away, its channel being bordered throughout by old and luxuriant forest. There exists also flourishing forest beside the Kok-ala opposite to this same region. Then we had on our left an almost perfectly bare zone of sand, except for a • little extremely sparse vegetation, with every now and again a dead tree. On the right we left an old dry boldschemal, which some time or other was destroyed by the Tschöl-ottogho. After that the track led through an almost barren sandy belt called Kum-tscheke, and finally it took us away from the Tschölottogho, which is reported to be half a day's journey distant from the Kontsche-darja. The undermentioned places are said to belong to Tschöl-ottogho, — Dovlet-tareghan, Arsemet-kätgen, Kum-tok, Laschin, Oghru-tschapghan, Kultu Bekni-uji, and Dalal-uji, which is reputed to be the origin of Tschöl-ottogho. On the other hand I was unable to obtain any clear information as to where precisely this origin is; all I could glean was that formerly the stream in question separated from the Kok-ala at the last-mentioned point, situated somewhere above Kara-dung (see below). The district of Jaman-tala bears indications of having been once cultivated, as also of canals that derived their water from the Tschöl-ottogho. At Jigdelik we again touched one of the bends of the Kok-ala. On the north the forest-belt of the Tschöl-ottogho was now screened by a zone of barren dunes, of very respectable elevation and size, which turn their steep faces consistently towards the west-south-west. Here then we have an actual, though narrow, strip of desert sand between the Kontsche-darja and the Tarim. The district lying immediately north of the forest of Jigdelik is called Jamantalaning-baschi. The track we were following, which had by this returned to the vicinity of the Kok-ala, is so seldom used since the Tschöl-ottogho dried up, that it is in many places obliterated, especially where the soil consists, as it often does, of sand. On the left, near the river, is the district of Nodsche, while on the right is Tölögöntareghan, being, as the name indicates (Tölögön has been Sowing), formerly a cultivated locality. Not only does the nomenclature point to this region having been formerly more densely peopled than it is now, but in several directions, even where the localities bear no names, there are rectangular ridges and depressions, plainly indicative of fields long forgotten about. In this land . of incessant change even the arable ground is, we see, of temporary duration only. Let a river but alter its direction, and the irrigation canals which go out of it dwindle away and the fields they watered dry up, and are abandoned. Here the population have no alternative, but have to follow after, and dig new canals from the banks of the new channel.
After passing Kurban Kullu and Tölögön-tareghan-baschi, we doubled a sharp bend of the river, the river itself inclining away to the south for a good long stretch. The name Urusgha-sal-salghan (the Ferry built for the Russian) points to a passage of the river by some Russian traveller. Twenty jol south of our route our Kok-ala (that begins at Kudschek) unites with the arm which starts from Kara-tschatsch, and runs south of a pretty extensive, but barren, belt of sand. In other words, the Kok-ala or Kuntschekisch-tarim possesses two main head-streams, both issuing from the left bank of the Tarim. Beside the Kudschek branch lie the districts of Barat-uktesu, Kum-arik, Toschkan-salghan, and Akma-salghan-köbruk; while beside the Kara-
IIIF Color HighRes
