In the passage which I have quoted above from Roborovskij, he says that Kujdalik is situated 25 versts almost due south from Kimur-chani on the shore of the Baghrasch-köl. On his map however he shows it 20 versts S. 30° E. from the point indicated. If the statement in the text were true, then the distance, likewise in a straight line, between Kujdalik and Gerilghan, the nearest point on the Kontschedarja, would be only 32 versts. Hence both ranges ought to lie within this short distance; but this is not likely, for the Kuruk-tagh is quite a considerable distance from Gerilghan. Moreover Kujdalik is expressly stated to be situated at the foot of the Chara-teken-ula range, probably in a glen-mouth, where there is a brook; and it may safely be assumed that it is a good way from the mouth of the said glen to the crest of the range.
Precisely the same results are arrived at when we consider the data which exist for the region between the glen-mouth of Suget-bulak and the south-east extremity of the Baghrasch-köl. Here it is possible to demonstrate almost geometrically the necessity of positing the existence of only one main range. From Dilpar on the Kontsche-darja to the south-east corner of the Baghrasch-köl is a distance of 84 versts. From Dilpar to the mouth of the glen of Suget-bulak it is 3o versts (32.2 km.); and from the south-east corner of the Baghrasch-köl to Chara-tekenula it is, according to Roborovskij, 20 versts. With regard to the remaining 34 versts we possess no information; but my guide and a Loplik, who had been to the pass, assured me that it was a good day's journey to reach it. If therefore we count this as ten versts less than the day's journey between Dilpar and Sugetbulak, or 20 versts, there remains a breadth of only 14 versts for the two ranges. From Kurbantschik to Davan it is said to be a two days' journey, probably even by a difficult route on which only a short distance can be made in a day. It may also be taken for granted that the transverse glens on the north side of the Charateken-ula can only be a little shorter than the transverse glens on the south side of the Kuruk-tagh, seeing that the difference in elevation between the northern plain and the southern — Baghrasch-köl lies at 896 m. and the Kara-koschun at 805 m. — is not very great. Consequently the whole breadth of the 14 versts are required for the northern transverse valley of the Chara-teken-ula alone; or in other words, the two ranges must be in actual fact one and the same, the Mongol name Chara-teken-ula corresponding to the Turkish name Kuruk-tagh. Since Roborovskij's excursion along the south shore of the Baghrasch-köl, both ranges have figured on our maps. On sheet No. 6o of Stieler's Hand-Atlas of 1891, that is one year earlier than the issue of Roborovskij's book, one range, the Kuruktagh, is distinctly marked, but in addition there is a low ridge, Churtuk-tau, placed close to the southern shore of the Baghrasch-köl. But this latter name is manifestly a distorted form of Kuruk-tagh. It is probably due to Wilkins, who as a member of Kuropatkin's mission to Jakub Bek (1876-77) paid a visit to the Baghrasch-köl, and then no doubt saw a range to the south of the lake and was told its name was the Churtuk-tau. Matusovskij and Nikitin however on their »Karta Kitajskoj .Imperij» of 1889 also show two ranges, a northern, the Churtuk-tau, and a southern, the Kuruk-tagh, which diverge rapidly from a common starting-point immediately east of Korla, precisely in the way shown by Roborovskij and as they appear on
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