Untitled

62
EAST ASIA.
trated along the banks of this fertilising stream, whose alluvial deposits are far
more precious than its golden sands. Its farthest source is on the Karakorum
Pass (17,500 feet), where a ridge a few yards wide separates the Tarim and Indus
basins. Flowing first north-west, parallel with all the ranges of this orographic
system, it is soon swollen by the numerous feeders sent down from the snows and
glaciers of the Dapsang and other peaks, rivalling those of the Himalayas themselves
in height and grandeur. Hence the Yarkand is already a large stream when
but here its volume is rapidly
diminished by evaporation and
it reaches the plains ;
the extensive irrigation works developed along its banks. Nevertheless, during
the floods, the main branch is still 400 or 500 feet broad, and nowhere fordable at
the city of Yarkand.
None of the streams flowing to the Tarim from the Pamir are of any size. The
mountains where they have their source rise immediately west of the plain, leaving
little space for the development of large rivers. These mountains, the Tsung-ling,
or " Onion Mountains " of the Chinese, are the advanced projections of the Central
Asiatic nucleus, here dominated by the imposing peak of Tagharma. They skirt
the eastern edge of the Pamir, which is far more abrupt than the opposite side
facing the Oxus basin. Of all the streams flowing from these highlands eastwards
the Kashgar-daria alone reaches the Yarkand- daria. Its chief head-stream is one
of the two Kizil-su ("Red Waters"), flowing one to the Aral, the other to the
Tarim basin. The mountains of the Eastern Pamir are themselves often called
Kizil-art, Kizil-tagh, or " Red Mountains."
THE TARIM.
The Khotan and Yarkand, swollen by the Kashgar, unite with the Ak-su, which
is itself joined by the Taushkan-daria from the Tian-shan, and by the junction of
all these streams is formed the Tarim (Tarim-gol), the Oechardes of the Greek
geographers. But the term Tarim is little used by the natives, who, according to
Prjevalsky, still call the united stream the Yarkand-daria. Rivalling the
Danube in length, the Tarim, unlike that river, diminishes in size as it approaches
its mouth, although still fed by other tributaries from the north. East of the
Kok-su, which flows to Lake Baba, the Khaidu-gol,* descending from the Yulduz
steppes, has sufficient volume to reach the Tarim, traversing on the way the large
and deep lacustrine basin variously known as the Bogla-nor, Bostan-nor, Bagarashkul,
Karashar-kul, or simply the Denghiz, or " Sea." The Kha'idin-kua, or Konche-
daria, as the outlet of this lake is called, flows through a narrow gorge in the
Kuruk-tagh range, which was formerly defended by strong fortifications, and is
still guarded by mud forts.
LOB-NOR.
After receiving the Konche-daria, the velocity of the Tarim is gradually dimi-
nished as it approaches the deepest portion of the Tian-shan Nan-lu depression. Near
* On most maps ynl and gl are wrongly used synonymously. Go! is the Mongolian word for " river,"
whereas gol is a Turki word meaning lake; hence equivalent to kul.