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| 0554 |
Innermost Asia : vol.1 |
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the Sokho-nōr into the western main course of the Ūmne-gol, was no longer found running by
Lāl Singh. It had obviously dried up meanwhile and thus failed to keep the water of the basin
fresh, as it did previously. A comparison of the two surveys also brings out the fact that the extent
of the Gashun-nōr, the western and main terminal lake, had shrunk in an exactly corresponding
measure, its width from east to west appearing reduced from about twenty to fourteen miles. With
regard to the relation between the two lakes it deserves to be specially noted that Lāl Singh's
height observations, like those of M. Kaznakov, show the Sokho-nōr as lying appreciably higher
than the Gashun-nōr.⁵ The fact that the Etsin-gol terminates in two separate, and in 1914 quite
independent, lakes has its distinct interest, because it furnishes a close parallel to what we had
occasion to point out above as regards the relation between the Su-lo-ho and the Hua-hai-tzŭ basin
on the one hand and the bifurcation at an earlier period of the terminal Su-lo-ho towards the Lop
sea-bed on the other.⁶
Terminal
basin of
Etsin-gol. The survey of this interesting ground in the terminal basin of the Etsin-gol had to be carried
out by Lāl Singh alone, while I myself was kept busy by archaeological work at the Khara-khoto
site. Having to my regret been unable from lack of time to visit this ground in person farther north
than Dashoba, I must be content with a few brief remarks suggested by a comparison of the
available topographical data with those noted in the Lop and Su-lo-ho basins. Apart from the
bifurcation already referred to, the Etsin-gol terminal basin shares with that of the Su-lo-ho two
surface features, not less noteworthy because they are of a quasi-negative character. One is the
absence of any very large salt-encrusted areas, and the other the very limited effect that wind-erosion
is able to assert on the present surface of the ground, in spite of the violent winds that sweep over
both basins during great parts of the year.
Limitation
of alluvial
deposits on
Etsin-gol. I believe that the explanation in each case may be sought in the comparatively rapid fall of
both the Su-lo-ho and the Etsin-gol in their terminal courses. This has necessarily greatly limited
the ground liable to periodic inundation and consequent salt-incrustation. At the same time it
has also limited the extent of alluvial clay deposits upon which wind-erosion can best work its force
when desiccation sets in and leaves them unprotected by vegetation. Along the Ūmne-gol branch
the fall of the river-bed between Camp 156, some three miles above Tāwun-tora, and the Gashun-
nōr, a distance of about 44 miles, amounts to fully 570 feet, and it is just the same over the corre-
sponding distance between Camp 150 (Map No. 45. B. 1) and the Gashun-nōr. The belts to which
the several river branches have carried their alluvium at different periods are not very wide and
are still receiving enough moisture, whether from floods or subterranean drainage, to maintain
vegetation and thus receive protection from wind-erosion. The same protection is afforded by
the very nature of their surface to the stretches of gravel 'Sai' which separate these belts and
are found right down to the vicinity of the terminal lakes. Hence the marked rareness of
Yārdangs in the Etsin-gol basin, and the scarcely noticeable effect that wind-erosion has had upon
its ruins.
Sand ridges
east of
Ūmne-gol. Yet the strength and frequency of the winds that blow down into the Etsin-gol basin, mainly,
as we learned by trying experience, from the west and north-west, have left their landmark in the
shape of big ridges of dunes to the east of the Ūmne-gol. As the maps (Nos. 44. c. 4; 45. c. 1)
show, this accumulation of sand ridges reaches a height of 200 feet to the south of the Sokho-nōr,
and stretches for a total length of over twenty miles. We have in it the exact counterpart of the high
ridges of drift-sand which rise to the west and south-west of the terminal lake-bed of the Su-lo-ho
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