582 THE HYPSOMETRICAL RELATIONS OF THE TARIM BASIN.
them with the 14.0 m. in the Markat region, we get a difference of elevation amounting to 1°3.5 m. But then not only do the dunes in question lie outside the area we are discussing, they are entirely a secondary phenomenon, for they owe their present position to the wind. Moreover the lake-depth which I have quoted is also due to a secondary influence, namely the wind, as we have already seen. Consequently these abnormal differences of elevation are in no respect antagonistic to the generalisation, that the surface of the Desert of Lop• is inconceivably flat; and in the case of that part of it which especially interests us, we know that station No. 346 does lie not only 2.282 m. lower than station No. 1, but 1.669 m. higher than station No. 129.
All that now remains is for me to add a few words to three plates which relate to previous chapters, and which I have drawn since the chapters in question were printed. Pl. 44 a reproduces the picture of the distribution of the drift-sand in the basin of the Tarim. The green-coloured patches representing vegetation may perhaps be considered to occupy far too great an area; but I hasten to point out, that those which are tinted a lighter ,shade of green merely indicate ground which is of such a kind as to be capable of supporting vegetation, but which as a matter of fact over extensive areas, e. g. the triangle Kaschgar—Jarkent—Maral-baschi, carries only an extremely thin sprinkling of vegetation, and indeed it is often barren except for an occasional withered scrubby bush. Generally, the lighter tint may be taken as indicating steppe and cultivated country, and the darker tint forest.
The same remarks apply to Pl. 39, where the varying shades of colour used in depicting the sand are intended to exhibit its varying amount, which in general increases from east to west. Here we see beautifully the broad path which the branches of the Tarim have carved for themselves through the belt of drift-sand, mere fragments of which are now left between them. The belt of sand in the
Desert of Lop advances transgressively across the clay desert, the northern and eastern outskirts of which are however exposed. The section that projects towards the north-east formed at some time or other a part of the bottom of the Lop-nor; similar new formations of clay sediment are taking place at the present time on the bottom of the existing Kara-koschun. The zones of schor are depicted on the southern shore of the old lake and on the corresponding shore of the new lake as well. A long way off to north and south the hard gravelly scree rises slowly up towards the Kuruk-tagh and the Astin-tagh respectively.
PI. 4o shows the belts which are excavated by the wind and those filled up with sediment, drift-sand, and organic material, as well as the region that intervenes and which has recently been filled with water. Here we see also the most important of the old and new beds of the Tarim. A circular section illustrates the pendulum-like oscillations of the lowermost Tarim and its terminal lake.
Before we leave the Lop country I must return to a question touched upon in the beginning of this volume, namely the question of Jing-pen and Ju-jing-pen. I have said there (p. 42), that I am »very much inclined to regard them as identically the same place, but go on to add, that in default of further evidence I do not feel warranted in disregarding Kosloff's observations in the same locality. I therefore considered it possible, that my Jing-pen might be identical with his Empen or rather
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