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0629 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 629 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000216
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THE KUNTSCHEKISCH-TARIM AND ITS CONNECTIONS WITH THE KONTSCHE-DARJA. 497

this same river gave a volume of 12.12 cub.m. Thus on the last day of April 1900 its volume was 1.1 cub.m. more; now this is the opposite of what one would have expected, not only because the river carries a greater amount of water in the beginning of April, when the freshets from the melting ice are coming down, but also because of the loss occasioned by evaporation and absorption on its way down to the Avullu-köl. Whereas we find that not only had the river not decreased along this stretch, but it had actually increased. The only explanation can be, that the branches of the Kontsche-darja, which feed the Kuntschekisch-tarim, had diminished. Thus the Kontsche-darja manifests the same tendency as the Tarim to shift.its channel back towards the east.

Upon subtracting the volume of the Kontsche-darja water (13.22 cub.m.) from the immediately preceding measurement, we obtain a residue of 26.58 cub.m., the amount of the discharge from the Tschivilik-köl in this direction. Add to this the Scharkurun water, 38.11 cub.m., and the total (17.8i cub.m.) of the canals that empty themselves into the Jätim-tarim, and we get a grand total of 82.5 cub.m. for the combined discharge from this lake in the three different directions. This is only 3.4 cub.m. less than the total volume of the Tarim at Jurt-tschapghan (on 13th April), but three times as much as flowed past Kum-tschapghan to the Kara-koschun on loth April. Excluding from the total just given the volume of i7.81 cub.m. which enters the Jätim-tarim, the 15 cub.m. belonging to the arm that begins just below Scharkurun, and under the name of the Jemischek likewise enters the Jätim-tarim just above Arghan, and the 5.15 cub.m. which flows into the Tarim through the kok-alas of Schirge-tschapghan, or in all 38 cub.m., then the remainder, or 44.5 cub.m., must be ascribed to the eastern waterway, viîz the Karaunelik-köl and the Tokus-tarim, notwithstanding the rapidity with which we have seen that the water is dissipated, and decreases, on the way down, so that, for example, there only remained 9.41 cub.m. in the Tokus-tarim on i6th April, and even a good deal of that was lost before it reached the Kara-koschun. The dissipation and loss are naturally greater in consequence of the water seeking its way through these numerous channels than they would be if it flowed along one definite, fixed main artery. Hence the multiplication of the arms of the Tarim delta is a contributing cause of the diminution of the Karakoschun. Were the waters to become concentrated into one channel, it would be tantamount to an augmentation of the terminal basin. In all probability the old Lop-nor was greater than the existing Kara-koschun, and one of the causes of this was that it received its main influx through a single channel. One consequence of the many arms into which the river now divides is that the levelling of the surface is more evenly distributed over a wider area.

Leaving Kadike, a district which in its entirety is also known as Mandscharbaschi, we on I st May, with fresh canoes and a fresh set of canoe-men, proceeded west-south-west across the lake of Tschivilik-köl. On this side too it possesses several extensive reaches of open water, which lend themselves excellently well to navigation by canoe. Nevertheless complaints were general that the reeds are threatening to encroach upon it. Occasionally we passed an island bearing toghraks and tamarisk-mounds. The soundings gave depths of 2.36, 4.13, 4.00, and 5.10 m. ; but there were no such shallow places here as we found in the Kara-koschun. The farther

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Hedin, eurney in Central Asia.

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