I 50 KARA-KOSCHUN.
of the lake. There is nothing to attract them on the border-lands between the decaying kamisch-fields and the desert. All I could learn from one old man was, that '/2 to 3/4 km. north-east or east-north-east of the point where we turned back there lay the district of Kugek; and that by the Dung-chan road it was about one day's journey to Latschin. Some years ago the long linked lakes had continued a good bit farther towards the east-north-east. The easternmost basin is called Soloma, though there is not a drop of water left in it, and it is now completely inaccessible. My informant, who visited Latschin twenty-one years ago, told me that over against Latschin the open water came at that time to an end, and for a day's journey farther there was thick kamisch; that was followed by a belt of dead kamisch, which gradually merged into the desert. If such was the case 2I years ago, it must be even more true at the present time; indeed it is most likely that even more extensive areas of fresh kamisch have died since then.
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