the shrinkage of the Kara-koschun, for the Kara-buran has received and retained amongst its kamisch all the sediment that the Tarim has brought with it. Upon issuing from the lake, the river was pretty clear, and the sediment which settled in the Kara-koschun is for the most part such as it picks up whilst traversing the distance between the two lakes. Within a short time the Kara-buran will have disappeared entirely. The river has already thrown up piers, as we have seen, and these mask its present course and its banks; all that now remains to be filled up are insignificant parts of the Kara-buran, and the lakes lying to the west of it as far as the district of Tschigelik-uj. As soon as this has been accomplished, the river will go direct to the Kara-koschun, carrying with it the whole of its sediment, and then that marsh will silt up at a more rapid rate than it has done during the time the Kara-buran has served as its clearing-basin.
Fig. I27. FORMATION OF PIER-LIKE RAMPARTS WHERE THE TARIM GOES THROUGH THE KARA-BURAN.
The next stage in the development will be that the Kara-koschun will serve as the clearing-basin, that is to say it will perform the same function that the Karaburan has done. We have already seen that the branches of the river-mouth became distinctly shallower between 1900 and 1901, to the profit of the side-canals situated higher up its course. It is through some of these that the main body of the river will eventually flow, and it will continue onwards as a deep trench through the shallow marshes, which will hang upon it like marginal lakes, especially on the south, just as the Kara-buran does now. Meanwhile the river will build up mud-banks along its sides, and these will part it from the marshes. The first step in the direction of this development is discernible in the arm C, which already has long piers, especially at its southern extremity. One may say with perfect justice,
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