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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.1 |
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| Jätim-tarim a little below the point where it leaves the Kuntschekisch-tarim; May 1st. |
Citation Information
500 THE TARIM DELTA.
the lake freezes, its level being at all events as high as it was then in the beginning of May; but whilst frozen it drops about 2 karätsch (= 0.45 m.). Then, when the ice has broken up, the level rises to what it was just then, the volume being of course augmented by the mus-suji, called in this locality also sarik-su, or the »yellow water». Muhamed Tokta's father came to Säkitma when 16 years old, and lived there all his life, dying in 1897 at the age of 90. When he arrived there in 1823, there were only two rivers, namely the Big Tarim, flowing along its westernmost bed, and the Kuntschekisch-tarim. Previous to his time, or about i oo years ago, the Tarim used to flow through the bed of the Laschin-darja. Afterwards this was dry for a pretty long period, and it was only 31,/2 years before my visit that the water returned to its channel, while in the actual year of my visit it had assumed imposing dimensions.
During the course of the day we measured the river twice; first, just below the point where the Jätim-tarim leaves the Kuntschekisch-tarim, and makes at first, apparently for no reason, a big curve towards the north. Here the breadth was 1I.98 m.; the mean depth, 1.215 m.; the mean velocity, 0.5221 m.; and the volume, 7.6o cub.m. in the second. At Schejtlar on 28th April the volume was 4.83 cub.m.; thus in that short distance the river had lost very nearly 3 cub.m., and yet it was falling daily, indeed during the 36 hours of our stay at Schejtlar it dropped 4 cm. Possibly the explanation is to be sought in side-arms of which we have no knowledge.
Fig. 434. Right. 2.02 1.95 1.54 1.0s 0.70 = depth. Left.
42 6o 60 6o 58
53 58 62 56 37 velocity.
58 61
Breadth = 11.98 m. Jätim-tarim a little below the point where it leaves the Kuntschekisch-tarim;
May 1st. Scale = I : zoo.
The second measurement was taken above the point where the Jätim-tarim breaks away from the Kuntschekisch-tarim, the results being as follows: breadth, 51.25 m.; mean depth, 2.629 m.; mean velocity, 0.6739 m.; volume, 90.81 cub.m. in the second. Deducting from this the volume of the Jätim-tarim, there is left a volume of 83.2 cub.m., which flows into the Tschivilik-köl. On the day before we found that the volume out of the same lake amounted to 82.5 cub.m. One would have expected this last datum to be a good deal less, for there is always a certain amount of wastage in a lake due to absorption and evaporation. And yet this circumstance, at first sight so strange, that almost as big a volume flows out of the lake as flows into it, admits of a perfectly natural explanation, and was even accounted for in a satisfactory manner by the natives themselves. The river entering
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