NORTH AND SOUTH WATERWAYS OF THE KARA-KOSCHUN.
that the term Tarim is the only one that is applied over a stretch of any great length, and this is simply because it means »river». The same thing applies to the mountain-ranges; the only exception, the Arka-tagh, being scarcely a proper name at all, but rather a descriptive term, »the farther mountains», the purpose in using it being less to distinguish a continuous range than to indicate all the mountain regions that lie beyond and behind the better known mountains. And it is equally characteristic of the natives to be blind to the fact, that one common name for all the various marshy divisions which are formed by the moribund Tarim would be conducive to order and system. Each man thinks only about the particular part of the great complex of marshes in which he possesses the right to put down his fishing-nets. The compound name Kara-koschun-köl is, from the linguistic point of view, per se as unlikely and as objectionable as it would be to write Kara-buran-köl or Lop-nor-köl. To put the invention therefore upon my map is a thing I strongly object to; it is a term which certainly never came from the lips of a native. On the other hand, I have no objection to offer, either on geographical or purely practical grounds, to the retention of the name Kara-koschun, seeing that it is already in existence, although, it is true, it does signify, properly speaking, something else than the lake in question. Did I not on principle dislike to see European names applied to the lakes and mountains of Asia, I should call this basin Lake Prschevalskij, in order to perpetuate once more the memory of the great and able traveller who discovered it, and of the existence of which previous to that discovery we did not possess the faintest inkling. Geographically speaking, it is incorrect to designate the several divisions of the lake by the names Kum-köl, Tojaghun, Usun-köl, etc.; but from the point of view of the native fishermen it is both practical and convenient. As a matter of fact Kara-koschun is nothing but a single marsh, which is continually changing its shape and its appearance. Nevertheless the names of the natives are not without value geographically, in so far as they enable us to discuss more conveniently the different parts of the great lake or marsh. They are also interesting as documents. I would almost venture to wager that within twenty years practically all the names which I have recorded from my visits of i 896, i 900, and i 901 will have disappeared, even if they are not forgotten. Some of them would however still be in use, e. g. Usun-köl, or the Long Lake, Jangi-köl, or the New-Lake, Ajaghköl, or the Lower Lake, because not only are they characteristic names, but some of them are under all circumstances sufficiently obvious; yet they would then certainly be applied to different sheets of water from those they now indicate.
The lake Tojaghun is said to be a fresh creation. It is only two years since it filled with water, and yet it was in this lake that I sounded the greatest depth I obtained anywhere throughout the whole of the Kara-koschun region, namely 4.85 and 5.15 m. This is a matter of very great interest and importance. For one thing, it shows that by the side of the depressions which contain water there exist other dry depressions still deeper, into which the water is only prevented from flowing by intervening ridges and thresholds. Whenever one of these thresholds is broken through, or if it is at any point so low that, when the water rises unusually high it runs over it, then the depression behind it gets filled. Tojaghun is a lake-basin of this character, which has been formed on the north side of Prschevalskij's Kara-koschun.
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