NORTH AND SOUTH WATERWAYS OF THE KARA-KOSCHUN. 137
said to have come thither two years ago; thus the Kara-koschun is, we see, expanding towards the north. In the next stage the depth did not exceed II/2 to 2 dm. Every now and again we observed side-basins, the entrances to which were stopped up with dams (esckik) of tamarisk-branches and kamisch, to keep the fish in the canals. Extensive areas were covered with a very thin layer of water, which manifestly had come there quite recently. In one place the velocity amounted to 1.49 m. in the second, the water boiling as it raced on past the nodding, bending reed-stalks. On the whole, firm ground is general thereabouts and the reeds quite thin. Kum-köl is said to have been formed two years ago, and it is into it that the impetuous little
Fig. 87. A SMALL OPEN )4KÖL» IN THE KAD4ISCH OF THE WESTERN KARA-KOSCIiUN.
stream pours itself. There is but little kamisch in the lake, but it is noteworthy that what there is should have been able to spread as it has done in such a short period as two years. On our left, that is on the north, we could see the summits of the sand-dunes; hence the name of the lake. New lakes have new names. The greater number of the basins I was then passing through and near did not exist in 1896, but had come into existence since that date; whereas the route I pursued in 1896 is now overgrown with reeds. When the old lakes disappear, their names vanish along with them, and are no doubt forgotten by the second generation, for they are then names possessing on the whole no importance. Upon reaching the northern shore of Kum-köl we were not very far from our line of march of 5th April. Jangi-köl, the New Lake, is a name that speaks for itself: it was 1.12 m. deep. I
Hedin, ,}ourney in Central Asia. II. i8
IIIF Color HighRes
