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

snow-covered range. At the sides of the upper *Tar-bashi* valley only slopes falling
to the north, N. W. and N. E. had snow patches. In front of us we now also saw
a mighty snowy range, obviously the southern part of the *Mus-tagh-ata* massif. In
our neighbourhood everything was detritus; the floor of the valley is partly gravel,
partly grass.

Finally the *Tar-bashi* valley opens out into the wide round basin of the
*Chicheklik Lakes*. This arena is on all sides surrounded by partly snow-covered
mountains. To our right, or north, is *Yangi-davan*, from which comes down the
*Yam-bulak* road, which is used when the *Tengi-tar* is impracticable. In the midst
of the basin is a little lake, 500 m. in length, called *Chicheklik-kul*; here the altitude
is 4,458 m. Just east of it is a threshold perhaps some 20 or 30 m. above the lake,
being the water-parting between it and the uppermost *Tar-bashi* valley. This threshold
was called *Chicheklik-davan* by my guides. The whole region is called *Chicheklik*,
or, according to the Kirgiz pronounciation, *Chichekli*.

From the little lake an effluent goes to a still smaller lake close by and con-
tinues to the south from it, reaching the *Shinde* River under the name of *Chicheklik-su*.
Both the brook and the lakes have crystal-clear water, which gathers in the upper
lake from the surrounding hills. The lakes are at their largest in spring. In the
winter they are covered with ice. In the beginning and middle of July five Tajik
families with 2,000 sheep wander to the basin, passing three months there or until the
first snow comes. West of the *Kok-moinak* Passes we met a yak caravan on its
road thither. The snow remains six months and has a thickness of half a meter,
2 or 3 *garech* as the Kirgiz say, one *garech* being the distance between the tip
of the little finger and the tip of the thumb of an outspread hand. The winter is
cold; *burans* or snow-storms are common, both from west and east. There is not
much rain. A basin of this form is called a *tus-yeilak* or »even summer grazing».
Twenty tents were said to be pitched along the *Chicheklik-su* on its course down
to the *Shinde*. One gets the impression that the *Chicheklik* basin has once been
a »Firnmulde» filled with *névés* sending out glaciers to the south and east. The
*Tar-bashi* valley with its soft, rounded forms may easily have been the bed of a
glacier. Its floor consists of very fine material, and at the little *moinak* there were
blocks and débris which may have belonged to an end moraine. I found no striæ,
but hard rock was not easy to reach.

Having left the small lakes and crossed the *Chicheklik-su* where the altitude
was 4,420 m., we gradually ascended the *Kichik-kok-moinak* (also pronounced *kök*).
Everything is soft material and gravel of chiefly gneiss. The rounded heights are
grass-covered. To the east we have the snowy range of *Kugusu*. We have a fine
view of the lake basin from the pass. From the little trough-shaped depression
between *Kichik-* and *Kata-kok-moinak* several rills join in a brook running down