ghan valley. The hydrography of the Tschöl-tagh country is likewise conditioned by these irregularities in the bottoms of the valleys. Most of the main streams, which flow here intermittently, do not descend the valleys directly, but cross them diagonally, and it is only after they have broken through one or more intervening ridges, that they turn west.) Then he cites certain instances of this, including the brook of the Teschik-bulak. »Gathering off the northern slopes of the nameless range, it breaks through this last in a meridional glen, crosses the next valley diagonally, and after picking up a torrent which comes down the same valley from the east, forces its way through yet another range, the Kuruk-tagh, and finally emerges upon the lowland of Lop.»
Lower down, after noticing the other itineraries which I have to consider, I will endeavour to give an intelligible account of the orography and hydrography of this mountain-system. Measured in a straight line, Grum-Grschimajlo's route between Dga and Teschik-bulak amounts to i 6o versts, and includes the full breadth of the entire system, with the exception of its border-range, giving us a capital and most trustworthy profile of three large ranges, the Tschöl-tagh, the Tuge-tau, and the Kuruk-tagh, as well as of a number of smaller ones. Unfortunately his map is drawn on too small a scale (4o versts to the inch) to afford a clear idea of the orographical formation. For instance, the rain-torrents are not shown, and there is nothing •to indicate in which direction the latitudinal valleys slope. Strangely enough, the most southerly border-range, which he calls Kuruk-tagh, is depicted in heavier fashion than the Tschöl-tagh, and far heavier than the Tuge-tau, which according to my view is the main crest of the Kuruk-tagh.
Of the geographical names that he cites, several agree with those that I ascertained. For instance, he mentions Iltirghan-bulak and Iltirghusch. The latter I had in the same form, but the former was given to me as Ölturghan-bulak, or the Killing Spring. On the map we find Ulterghan, clearly the same word. Miltoksun ought to be, I was told, Mir Toktasun, being named after a man. Other differences in orthography are of no moment.
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