230 EXCURSION TO AJAGH-KUM-KÖL.
glens in the circumjacent mountains, all of them then dry. Thus it is only the extreme western part of this latitudinal valley that belongs to the hydrographical system of the Kum-köl; all the rest of it belongs to the system of the Ghas-nur.
From the divide the latitudinal valley slopes slowly towards the north-east, being also joined by a number of small side-glens as it proceeds. On the south it is fenced in by a lofty portion of the Kalta-alaghan; there was there a larger quantity of snow than on the southern side of the range. In the mouth of a side-glen on the left there were springs, which had given rise to large sheets of ice in the broad shallow bed of the main stream of the valley. After that this last contracts to a narrow passage between the granite offshoots that nearly meet from both sides. Below this locality the main stream becomes bordered by fairly accentuated terraces. After that however the valley broadens out to a very respectable width. Hitherto the Kalta-alaghan had run from south-west to north-east; here it bends and subsequently proceeds due east, while farther on, as we have already seen, it bears to the east-south-east. Consequently it is the deviation of the Tschimen-tagh which gives rise to the great expansion of the latitudinal valley; its crest appears to bend away a good deal towards the north or north-west. Still it is just possible that the portion of the Tschimen-tagh which we had hitherto had on the left does not belong directly to the main range, but is only a southern branch of it, a branch of the same kind as that which fences in the valley of Toghri-saj on the east. In the great expansion the main stream of the valley is joined by a large tributary from the left, i. e. the west. From this point onwards the Tschimen-tagh conveys the impression of being quite an insignificant range; it does not even screen the westward continuation of the Akato-tagh, the Ilve-tschimen, whose great snowy peaks tower up above it. This again is solely the effect of the greater absolute height at which our latitudinal valley lies as compared with the Tschimen valley.
From the point where the main valley changes its direction from north-east to due east, it contracts again and slopes down towards Kötäklik. Finally it unites with the eroded watercourse of the At-atghan valley, which we crossed over at Möle-kojghan on our journey out. Orographically it is of course one and the same valley, and is situated between the same mountain-ranges. The united watercourse then cleaves the before mentioned gap through the Tschimen-tagh, and then, having picked up the streams of the Jusup-alik and Toghri-saj, makes its way past Baghtokaj towards the Tschimen-köl, which however it never reaches.
In the expansion of the latitudinal valley the main stream is so broad and so shallow, that it shows scarce any trace of terraced banks. Both grazing and fuel were fairly abundant, but there was no water. Leaving the stream on our right, we approached the foot of the Tschimen-tagh across an almost perfectly level stretch of country, the surface soon sloping again towards the north. The orographical conformation is here in the highest degree remarkable and unusual. The pass of the Tschimen-tagh at Kum-bulak lies only a few meters higher than the bottom of the latitudinal valley. Its altitude is 4194 m. In other words the space between these two great ranges has been filled up with detritus and accumulated sediment to such an extent that, at all events in this section of it, the bottom of the latitu-
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