National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

on the N. E. side of the Mus-tagh-ata. The valley of Ike-bel-su becomes narrower but the rise is regular and the road good, though full of gravel. During the summer the narrow furrow of the river is quite filled with foaming muddy water, and the road therefore sticks to the lower slopes of old rounded terraces and screes. The rock is green crystalline schist in 58° E. Living rock is very rare, everything being covered with detritus, gravel and blocks. The right side of the valley seems to consist, at least partly, of gneiss. On both sides the valley is bordered by dark, mighty ranges with snow on their crests and short rocky ramifications and mountain shoulders sloping down to the valley. The loose material of the screes reaches very high up on the slopes, and above their upper edges the living rock stands in nearly perpendicular teeth, crests and towers.

From the east, or E. N. E. enters the right tributary Yalpak-tash, a wild and narrow gorge between black picturesque rocks, and with a road to Kara-tash-davan. From this valley the Ike-bel-su received about 2 cub. m. of water per second; above the junction about 5 remained. At some places its bed is extremely narrow and the river must here be very deep and wild in summer. It has cut its bed through old moraines and heaps of gravel.

Tashing-tube is a triangular spot in the valley, where, on the slope of the left side, four tents were pitched. From the S. S. E. enters the wild and deep-cut valley of the left tributary, Kok-sel, bordered by imposing, snow-covered ranges. In its background we see an extended glacier landscape and here the considerable Kok-sel Glacier comes down, filling up nearly the whole Kok-sel valley with its tongue and snout. The glacier comes from the S. W. and turns to the north and even N. N. W. Higher up it seems to get contributions from small glaciers at its sides. From the Kok-sel-jilga, the Ike-bel-su gets a large portion of its water. The glacier is covered by nearly uninterrupted moraines, and only in the crevasses is the ice visible. The lateral moraines have not much place along the sides of the mountains. The end moraine is not large; it forms the S. E. border of the triangular spot.

From the junction of the Kok-sel and the Tur-bulung, the joint river is called Ike-bel-su. Our road goes up the Tur-bulung valley, ascending the very steep slopes of its right side in zigzags across screes of gravel, and living rock of gneiss. Farther on, at the round stone wall of Ak-kalama, the road again goes down to the floor of the valley which here is broader and has good grazing grounds. Steep, rocky mountains rise at both sides; at the left or south-western side a sharply defined black ramification separates the Kok-sel from the Tur-bulung valley. The water-course of the latter forms a series of rapids and even small waterfalls.

The aul of Tur-bulung had four tents of the Naiman and Sart-Kipchak tribes. These people pass the summer at Merke, and had arrived at Tur-bulung ten days ago.