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SOUTH OF ANAMBARUIN-ULA - SÄRTANG. 341
thinly populated, for a large caravan had recently left it for Sa-tscheo to fetch in provisions, while a second caravan had gone to Donchur, with the object of making a pilgrimage to Kum-bum. The three places last named were the only ones that my informants were acquainted with, their geographical knowledge being restricted to their own immediate neighbourhood.
Although Carey and Dalgleish travelled across Särtäng from south to north, they do not show a single river on their map, and know nothing of the Chaltinggol, which is thus absent from the map of »Tibet and the Surrounding Regions». From this one would surmise that the river was quite insignificant when they forded it. The same thing is true in the case of Prschevalskij, who, although he too must have forded the main stream of the basin, does not indicate even the bare existence of any such stream on his map. The only names he records are »The plain of Sirtin», Bagha-Sirtin-nor, Ike-Sirtin-nor, and Chujtun-nor. On the other hand his map shows that the basin is completely engirdled with mountains on the south, just as it is on the east and north; though in the west it seems to lie open to the basin of Tsajdam, the two basins being evidently separated by a low threshold, otherwise the Suchain-nor would not lie where it does lie now, nor would it be salt. Prschevalskij's Bagha-sirtin-nor and Ike-sirtin-nor are unquestionably identical with the Bulungir-nor and the Suchain-nor. Thus though from Prschevalskij's map we clearly see that Särtäng is at all events an independent, self-contained basin, forming a sort of subsidiary basin to the greater Tsajdam, we get no light upon the matter from Carey and Dalgleish's map; the names recorded on it can hardly possess real names to correspond with them, for they are so corrupted as to be unrecognisable. They call the country itself the »Sirthang District», and make it to be bounded on the south by Makhai Kutil, on the north by Tawan Bulgan Kutil, these being passes in the bordering ranges. Their map contains neither rivers nor lakes, though in three places unnamed marshes are figured and in one place the bare word »Lake» occurs. The other names are Kutil Amun, Kuku Basching Taen Ekin, Chaga Namgha, Ulun Gazar, Bagha Nairin, Karim Gomba at Yempin, and Sair Galto. On the map of »Tibet and the Surrounding Regions» the basin form is clearly and distinctly shown, and the three lakes of Prschevalskij are duly inserted, but not a single river. The country is called in part Syrtyn Plain, in part Syrtyn District, the former after Prschevalskij, the latter after Carey.
The best map of this region is that of the Russian General Staff, after being supplemented by the material gathered by Obrutscheff and Roborovskij. On it the main stream of the basin is called the Chalting-gol, and it is shown issuing from the two great ranges which may in the meantime retain the names that Prschevalskij gave them, namely the Humboldt and the Ritter Mountains. It is made to flow towards the west-north-west and to empty itself into the Suchain-nor (or Ike-särtäng-nor), picking up on the way from the left the Bagha-chalting-gol, which rises on the snowy masses of the Ritter range. The Holuin-gol is correctly represented as issuing from the Bulungir-nor (or Bagha-särtäng-nor). The map then shows it entering the Chalting-gol, and it is very possible that it really does so, although the Mongols assured me, that both rivers empty themselves into the Suchain-nor, without effecting a junction one with the other. Immediately south of the Suchain-nor is a small
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