24 THE KURUK-TAGH AND THE KURUK-DARJA.
bulak. Remains of a fire showed that it had recently been visited, probably by hunters from Korla. Just below Toghrak-bulak the valley debouches again upon the open saj; so that we had in reality crossed over a spur of the Kuruk-tagh that juts out a long way towards the south.
Fig. 19. KURIANTSCHIK; THE DEEP BASIN IN THE FOREGROUND.
We were now once more travelling towards the east, having the mountains on our left and the gently sloping saj, with its sparse vegetation, on our right. The latter still remained quite level, although furrowed by innumerable small gullies, about a foot deep, but filled with stones and gravel. There were no deeper trenches indicative of the existence of side-glens. And these characteristics the scenery retained for the rest of the way. Just before reaching the spring-brook of Budschentubulak we observed a glittering white spur of the mountains jutting out west of a deep, but dry, ravine, with an erosion terrace 3 m. high on the right; this ravine only carries water however after rain. The brook of the Budschentu-bulak issues from a side-glen of the Kuruk-tagh, and proceeds farther south than its fellows, though only a few kilometers, and then it too disappears amongst the detritus of the gravelly scree. Here its bed is very broad, though not very distinctly marked, is choked with stones and gravel, and contains also some drift-wood; at the time of our visit it also was caked with ice. The brook itself was split up into a number of rivulets, rippling along underneath the ice. This was the largest stream we crossed whilst travelling along the foot of the Kuruk-tagh.
At Budschentu-bulak we emerged from the Kuruk-tagh, in quest of the dry river-bed which was the principal object of the expedition. The orography of the Kuruk-tagh is far from being understood, especially towards the west. Kosloff
IIIF Color HighRes
