the amount of water which becomes locked up in the form of ice. From this we may conclude that there must also be a spring-flood (rnus-suji) in the Kontschedarja, also caused as usual by the thawing of the ice. Possibly however this is to some extent neutralised by the great quantities of water that are drained away for irrigation from the end of March onwards. The natives tell me, that the ice generally breaks up between the loth and 25th of March, and that as soon as the spring-flood (the thawed ice-water) has gone past, the river drops rapidly. It may therefore be taken for granted, that not only the Bos-ilek, but also all the emissaries of the Kontsche-darja which go to join the Kuntschekisch-tarim, sink to a low ebb. The Bos-ilek however does not appear to die away entirely in the summer, as, for example, the Chotan-darja does ; for if it did, the sandy desert would be able, at all events during that season of the year, to continue its migration towards the west; and yet this does not appear to be the case. But the elucidation of these points must be reserved for the future.
Generally speaking, the ice-sheet on the Kontsche-darja was thinner than that four days before on the Tarim. The toplayer was to the depth of 3 cm. soft, slushy, and rotten, and saturated with water, so that even before the holes were chopped right through the ice-sheet, they became full of water. Lower down in sheltered places the ice was still bright and hard. The water was as clear as crystal, transparent to the depth of 2.28 m., and had a temperature of + 0.2° C. in the holes we chopped in it.
The following information which I gleaned here is interesting. It is about two generations ago since the Intschkä-darja reunited with the Kontsche-darja, yet not in the. way usually shown on our maps : for, instead of proceeding due east from Tschongköl, it travelled by two arms, and towards the south-east. From the lake just mentioned, it made its way to the lake of Kara-ghatik-köl, where it divided into two branches, of which one, that on the left or north, emptied into the Kontsche-darja in the district of Jardang, and the other, on the right, joined the same stream at Dilpar. During the period that the Kontsche-darja flowed east through the bed of the Kum-darja (which Kosloff discovered), the Tarim, as I have already stated, was united with it, for I shall prove lower down that the Kontsche alone would not have been able to excavate such a large channel as the Kum-darja now is. Perhaps the Tarim at that time proceeded due east through the above-mentioned mouths of the Intschkä-darja, picking up on its way the Kontsche-darja; for this was then, as it is now, only a tributary of the main stream.
The following, I was told, are the names of the forest-tracts as one advances up the river (r. = right; 1. = left): Dilpar (r.); Kalmak-tüschdi (1.); Aruk-baliklik or Aruk-balik-jarsik (1.); Tschajlik (1.) and Jardang (r.); Schaldschalik (r.); Ak-ördäkdaschi (1.); Arpalik (r.); Saj-tscheke (1.); Oro-tscheke (r.); Buja-tscheke (r.); Dungotak (r.); Kasuk-akti (r.); Gerilghan (1.). The following names were known to my guides as belonging to the lower part of the Kontsche-darja: Dötö (r.); Tugha-baschi (r.); Salini-söresu; Aruk-balik (1.); Katschkan-uj (r.); Jäkänlik (1 ); Ak-basch-kijak (r.); Tokus-tolluk (r.); Mane or Majni (1.); Kurlik-uj or Kurlalik-uji (r.); Jäti jaghatsch; Kalpuk-utschugho (1,); Toghri-darja or Toghoro-darja (r.); Kongurtschak-tscheke (1.); Katschip-ulturghan; Masar (r.); Tschapghan-köl (1.); Sopu Nias; Tscharuk-asti (1.);
IIIFカラー高解像度
