THE KENG-KOL VALLEY AND THE PASS OF KASHKA- SU. 9
The aul of Kent -kol at this time consisted of four tents with 21 inhabitants. They pass three months here every summer, and the winter they spend in the valley of Ak-tö or Ak-luya. They had great flocks of sheep and goats grazing all around.
There is not much snow in the winter. The last snow disappeared in the beginning of March; in the beginning of November new snow falls. The cold is not sharp. In January the wind is hard and the snow that falls at this season is called sarik-kar or yellow snow, obviously because it is occasionally covered by dust from the desert. The above-mentioned name of Shamaldi or »The Windy (place)» indicates hard winds. The summer is the rainy season, though the rain was diminishing now. Sometimes it rains several days without interruption, and the river cannot be crossed.
On June 3oth we had 8.5 km. W. N. W. to the pass of Kashka-su 3,972 m. high, or a rise of 603 m. from the aul of Keng-kol, the rate being I : 14; from the pass we had 7.4 km. S. S. E. to Chihil-gumbes on the Charling River, where the altitude was 3,166 m. or a descent of 8o6 m. and a rate of fall of i : 9.2.
The uppermost part of the Keng--kol valley is called Kashka-su, not to be confounded with the Kashka-su jilga that joins the Keng-kol near the aul. The valley is very narrow and gravelly between rocks of black schist in 7o° E. N. E. From this valley flows the greatest part of the water of the Kena kol. Near the pass of Kashka-su the same schist fell 72° N. N. E. The crest of the pass otherwise consists of soft rounded hills, whilst the surrounding ridges are wild and rocky. The grass was excellent round the pass, and large numbers of ponies were grazing here, belonging to merchants in Yarkand. The view is magnificent; deep-cut valleys at both sides, and far in the west, snow-covered ranges and peaks. »The struggle for the water-parting» is going on with energy, and the small feeders are cutting in their furrows from both sides towards the pass.
The descent is steep at the west side where the schist stands in 42° W. S. W. at the foot of the pass. The western valley is also deep and narrow and is called Kashka-su, as is the pass and the region. Its brook had little water. To the left is the tributary of Koi yoli with an aul of six tents. To this place there is a shorter road across the same ridge as the one we had crossed, its pass being situated east of Kashka-su, but it is impossible for caravans. The rock was fine-crystalline and hard, falling 4o° S. W. Below Aidar the black schist lay in 36° S. E. Along the Caarling the rock was black slate and crystalline schist. The gravel and the blocks to a great extent consisted of granite or syenite. To the W. N. W. from Kashka-su-davan is Tamgara-davan, Boora. Köi-yoli, Ucha, Aidar and Char-ling were the only other names we heard. The river Charling- which here was very small, only 3 or 4 m. wide, is also called Charlung-. We camped at Chihil gumbeskaraul on its right bank, where three families of 13 persons lived, and a few small
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