THE KUM-KÖI, LAKES. 63
more than woo m. out ? He gives the names Guilvet Chiman (= Ilve-tschimen) and Chiman-Tagh to small truncated ranges which it is hardly possible to identify, and the same thing is true of his Chiamang-lay, which ought to be Schia-manglaj. The Kalta-alaghan bears on Bonvalot's map the name of Mts Columbo, following Prschevalskij. Farther south his map bristles with brand-new European names — a very objectionable thing on an Asiatic map. It is for this reason that I have abstained from exercising the discoverer's right of conferring new names upon lakes and mountains. In my former journey I only once departed from this principle. If it is necessary to give a fresh name to a mountain-range, it seems to me that a name such as the Red Sandstone Range or the »Range of the loth June» is at any rate more instructive than, for example, Chaîne Creveaux. The name of Columbus is used often enough in America without transplanting it to the heart of Asia, where it is quite as strange as the name of Vasco da Gama himself would be. No, let your new christenings be banished to the Poles, where they are necessary, but let the Kalta-alaghan be called the Kalta-alaghan, that and nothing else.
After this digression, let us return to the Upper Kum-köl. We have ascertained that the lake is very small, probably not more than 20 square km. in area. Its mean depth reaches 1.12 m., that is 1.12 m. is the mean of the twenty-six soundings I took, though that is too small a number for a lake of that size, so that the value in question is only approximately correct, and is only true of the eastern half of the lake. I consider it probable, that the western half is even shallower, especially if it is the case that a river enters it there. The annexed sketch-map will show the probable course of the bathymetrical curves.
Briefly put, the hydrographical and morphological arrangement is as follows. Between the Kalta-alaghan and the Arka-tagh system lies an extensive basin. On the west this basin is separated from the basin of the Atschik-köl by an inconsiderable ridge and on the east by a notable swelling from the district of Tschulak-akkan, that is to say the gigantic basin of Tsajdam, which lies more than i 000 m. lower. The deepest part of the basin we are considering forms a long, narrow depression along the southern foot of the Kalta-alaghan. The deepest part of this elongated trench is occupied by the large lake of Ajagh-kum-köl, or the Lower Sand Lake, the water of which is very salt. As compared with this, the Upper lake, which is fresh, is called Basch-kum-köl, also simply Kum-köl, or the Sand Lake, because it is situated in the immediate neigbourhood of the drift-sand area. The spring-water which gathers on the south and enters this lake makes its way by the Kum-köl-darja into the lower lake. From the Arka-tagh and its foothills three or four streams flow northwards towards this elongated depression, and empty themselves either into the lakes or into the river which connects them. The difference of elevation between the two lakes is extremely slight. For a description of the Ajagh-kum-köl and its surroundings I must refer the reader to a later chapter.
The shores of the Kum-köl are frequented by enormous numbers of wild geese and wild duck, which find plenty of sustenance amongst the mud at the bottom and in the Algæ, while the water of the lake contains also Crustaceans of the same species as those which occur in the springs and marshes.
In the afternoon it blew a violent gale from the south-east, and this was followed by exceptionally heavy and long-continued rain.
IIIFカラー高解像度
