508 THE TARIM DELTA.
mediate vicinity; close to the river-bank its arms form a waterfall, with a single descent of 1.8 m. Above Lanka half a score or a dozen other kok-alas of varying size gradually unite to form the Ara-tarim or Kuntschekisch-tarim. The bed of this river becomes large and deeply trenched after receiving the Kalmak-ottogho, although this was at that time so insignificant; the greater part of the volume of the former is contributed, as we have seen, by the Turkomakte-kok-ala. Hence the amount of water contributed by the Kontsche-darja amounted to 48.90 cub.m., thus made up — the Bos-ilek, i 3.22 cub.m.; the ten canals, i 7.0 cub.m.; and the Kuntschekisch-tarim, 18.68 cub.m. In 1896 the Kontsche-darja at Korla gave a volume of 71.72 cub.m. in the second; so that in the intervening distance the river had lost 22.8 cub.m., the greater part of which had no doubt gone into the marshes. At this particular season of the year therefore the Kuntschekisch-tarim is fed principally by water from the Kontsche-darja. The streams from this last, which join the Kuntschekisch-tarim above the Kalmak-ottogho, contributed about the same amount as the streams below the same, namely 18.68 and 17.o cub.m. respectively.
The following particulars as to the population of this region I owe to Naser Bek, bek of Tikenlik. His authority extended over 7o ujlik, thus distributed 34 at Kirtschin, 14 at Ojman-köl, and 22 at Tikenlik, making a total of 500 to 550 persons. Jangi-köl is estimated to have 33 ujlik, half of them on the right and half of them on the left of the Tarim; and Tschara to have 23 ujlik. Both these talluk, or tabesi, were at the time of my visit subject to the authority of Baset Bek; while Tais-köl with its 37 ujlik was governed by Hassan Bek and Ibrahim Bek. Tschongköl on the Intschkä-darja, which embraces 15 ujlik, is subject to Arsu Bek. The population of Kara-kum was put by Naser Bek at about i,000 ujlik which is probably exaggerated, and of these r,700 persons are Tunghans, 3o ujlik are Chordschas, and 200 Chinese, but none are Lopliks. The whole of the Lop region, from Laj-su (Al-katik-uj) as far as Kara-koschun, is considered to number 535 ujlik, amounting to about 9,025 individuals. Any statement of this kind emanating from a native must of course be accepted with great reserve; yet these estimates do not seem to me to be either exaggerated or improbable. Naser Bek stated that the boundaries of his administrative district pass through Chodai Värdi-tschapghan (opposite Kuslek) on the Tarim, through Ova (obo = boundary-mark), midway between Dural and Tikenlik, and then to Beglik-köl, Talaschti-köl (on the Tarim), and Tschap- . ghan-köl.
The following information, communicated by the same chief, is not without interest. Eighteen or twenty years ago, that is to say shortly after Jakub Bek's time, the Ara-tarim was dry about Old Tikenlik, and the Kontsche-darja flowed at that time through the Turkomakte-kok-ala, and then through its present bed, past Säkitma, and by way of the Jätim-tarim to Arghan. The Big Tarim kept at the same period to its most westerly channel close to the drift-sand. Since the water began to flow through the Kalmak-ottogho, the people had taken advantage of it to irrigate their fields at the present Tikenlik. Naser Bek calculated the dates of the older hydrography by the . genealogy of his own family. Naser Bek himself was
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