Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/119

100 from the shore barely exceeds one foot. The whole of Lob-nor is equally shallow, only here and there occur occasional pools, ten or at most twelve to thirteen feet deep. The water in all parts of the lake is clear and sweet, being brackish only round the shores, which are salt and swampy, devoid of all vegetation, and furrowed in ridges on the surface. These saline marshes surround the whole of Lob-nor; along the southern shore their width is from eight to ten versts, whilst on the east, according to the report of the inhabitants, they extend much farther till they blend with, the sands. Beyond the salt marshes, at all events on the south where I surveyed them, a narrow belt of tamarisk-trees follows the shore line, and beyond this again a pebbly plain rising considerably though gradually to the foot of Altyn-tagh. This was probably in remote times the border of Lake Lob itself, which at that period overflowed its shores, and was therefore far more extensive, and probably deeper and less obstructed by reeds than at present. What caused the diminution of the lake, and whether this phenomenon was periodical or not, I cannot say. But the fact that almost all the lakes of Central Asia show signs of desiccation is well known. Let us now say a few words about the Tarim.

At the western extremity of Lake Lob, near the village of Abdallah, this river has still a width of 125 feet, greatest mean depth fourteen feet, velocity of current 170 feet per minute, sectional