the nearer side of this we could distinguish a succession of rather darker strips, probably the different varieties of ground formation and the different belts of vegetation which we crossed on our way between Dilpar and Suget-bulak. On the east we had all day a dominating section of the range, which still retained a good deal of snow in sheltered crevices on its eastern flank.
Fig. I6. MOUNTAIN SCENERY ON THE ROAD BETWEEN SUGET-BULAK AND KURBANTSCHIK.
The transverse glen of Örtäng-bulak points towards the south-west, and the dry torrent which descends it is enclosed between rounded erosion terraces and contains some drift-wood. As the name bulak indicates, there is a spring in this glen also, but the rivulet to which it gives rise does not get down to the mouth of the glen. The next transverse glen, Kuruk-akin, possesses a very broad and distinctly trenched watercourse; but here again there is no permanent stream. Nevertheless it appears to drain a very extensive area amongst the mountains; and this would indeed seem to be borne out by the degree to which its erosive effects have been developed.
Next we turned to the east-north-east, passing a good many shallow rivulets, separated from one another by hills, until finally we found ourselves on the edge of the sharp-cut depression of Kurbantschik, a deeply sculptured trench or cauldron, some 3o or 4o m. deep. It is inclosed by gigantic beds of gravel-and-shingle, fairly rounded and weathered, and pierced in places by the naked rock. We reached the bottom of the cauldron by a steep ravine. A vivacious little brook rippled amongst the soft cakes of ice with which its stony channel was littered. Its volume measured 82.s cub.decimeters in the second, and yet owing to its greater breadth it appeared to be bigger than the brook of Suget-bulak. Kara jaghatsch and
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