ROBOROVSKIJ, PRSCHEVALSKIJ AND FUTTERER ON THE KURUK-TAGH. 95
From this account of Roborovskij it would thus appear that between the Baghrasch-köl and the Desert of Lop there are not, as is generally shown on our maps, two parallel ranges merely, but three. Still of this I confess I am not fully convinced. Roborovskij says indeed, that he saw three ranges stretching towards the south-east; but in taking a general bird's-eye view such as he did it is easy to deceive oneself, and what appeared to be three different ranges may in reality be ramifications of one and the same main range. He states that in travelling between Korla and Baghrasch-köl he only crossed over one pass. This does not of course prevent the torrents and glens, which run down on both sides from the main range in which the pass is situated, from breaking through a northern or a southern range lying parallel to the main range. In that case he would have mentioned them whilst describing his route, but he does not do so.
I also was told, that there is only one pass, that is to say one mountain-range, on the route from Suget-bulak and Kurbantschik to Baghrasch-köl; and the simple name Davan (= Pass) given to the pass, makes it probable that there is only this one pass along that route. In another passage Roborovskij himself appears to entertain the opinion, that there is only one mountain-range, for he says: »The southern slope of the range is covered with a thin layer of disintegrated matter .... There are bushes on the northern face of the range» — words in which he dwells upon the great difference that exists between the flank looking down upon Korla and that looking down upon the Baghrasch-köl. And still less trace of three separate ranges do we find on the picture which he gives of the orographical relations on his accompanying map; at all events the country traversed by his route-line conveys the impression of crossing over one range only, the conventional sign )( and the abbreviation IIep. (IIepeBau& = »pass») indicating the place where he crossed the range. How little known and how puzzling the orographical features of this region are is illustrated by the large general map which is printed along with Roborovskij's and Kosloff's account of their 1893-95 journey.* On it the westernmost part of the Kuruktagh is shown as a single range, which soon divides into two chains that diverge rapidly from one another. Of these the more northerly bears little resemblance to Roborovskij's Chara-teken-ula, which on his own map he puts at 32 versts south of the northernmost point of the south shore of the lake, whereas on the large general map it lies only 15 versts distant. Roborovskij says that the eastern part of the Chara-teken-ula is called the Kisil-sangir-tagh; but on the general map we find that the eastward continuation of the Chara-teken-ula is Kosloff's Igertschi-tagh.** The real facts appear to be that the Igertschi-tagh is a detached and separate parallel range, and the Chara-teken-ula and Kuruk-tagh are one and the same range passing through Kisil-sangir. When Roborovskij's guide in 1890 (Pjevtsoff's expedition) declared, that the Chara-teken-ula extended as far as Kisil-sangir, he was nearer to the actutal orographical truth than he was during his expedition of three years later.
* Atschotnaja Karla k Trudam Exiled. Imper. Russk. Geogr. Obschtsch. pod. Natsch. V. I. Roborovskago.
** So too on the map of the Russian General Staff of the territories bordering on the empire in Central Asia — the Hami sheet.
IIIFカラー高解像度
