would be impossible to say, but the chances are that they were the same there as in the west; that is to say, it is very probable that all the lakes which we discovered in 1901, or if you like the one large greatly subdivided lake, was everywhere the same in both years, just as it certainly was at the one point where I had an opportunity to observe it, namely at Camp No. XX. But to the east the lakes were more scattered and less connected in 1900 than they were in 1901.
And upon comparing the conditions at Camp No. XX with those of the Tarim at Jurt-tschapghan, we are at once struck by the great parallelism between them. At the place named, the Tarim had on 13th April 1900 a volume of 85.91 cub.m., and on 3rd April 1901 a volume of 141.05 cub m., in the second. On the 2nd April 1900 the newly formed lakes had a smaller volume than on 28th March 1901. I have already observed that a difference of ten days at this season may make the greatest difference in the volume, and that as soon as the high water has gone past, the river drops very rapidly. If now the high water passed Jurttschapghan about the 1st April, one would expect the lakes to be greater on the 2nd April than on the 28th March. As an actual fact the reverse of this took place. This goes to show that the Kara-koschun as a whole, under all circumstances, and apart from the annual fluctuations in the volume of the river, and irrespective too of the date, is shifting towards the north. The large volume of 141 cub.m. was measured on the 3rd April, or six days after my second visit to Camp No. XX. Possibly it had been even greater before that; but at all events on 3rd April it was so large that the new lakes went on swelling and, as we saw with our own eyes, were continuing their migration to the north. Another difference as compared with the year before was, that the water was now (1901) a good deal less salt.
After getting round the corner of the lake, we proceeded to the south-east and east beside the irregular and capricious outlines of the large lakes, and the open and spacious basins, in which there was no vegetation. Here too there were narrow »fingers» stretching between the clay ridges and the drift-sand, all running towards the south-west or west. In one or two places, as well as at Camp No. CLXXIII, there were tamarisks, barely 3 dm. high, which had evidently struck root only one or two years before. We also observed two or three small patches of kamisch, but all put together they would not have been enough to satisfy one camel. There was no kötäk anywhere; but mollusc shells were everywhere abundant. The only birds we saw were gulls and wild-duck.
During the night of the 28th-29th March, or a space of 15 hours in all, the lake rose 5.6 cm., though some portion of the rise ought perhaps to be attributed to the wind from the east-north-east, which blew during that time and attained a velocity of 11.5 m. in the second. We often heard the clay ridges, after being undercut by the vigorous action of the waves, plumping noisily into the water.
After going some distance farther to the east, we turned off to the south-south-west, so that our route was now rather more easterly than it had been the year before; as a consequence of this there was somewhat less sand. After a while we passed an offshoot of yet another pretty large lake-basin, beside which tender young tamarisks were growing, as well as a few stalks of kamisch. Both appeared to be one year, or at the most two years, old. The condition of the vegetation is
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