Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/208

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to Lake Balkash, and until comparatively recent times connected with it, is Lake Ala-kul, or, more correctly, Alak-kul, well known through the writings of Humboldt as the supposed centre of the volcanic forces of Central Asia until Schrenck personally visited it and found no trace of eruptive rocks either on the islands or round the lake. Lake Ala-kul is not easily mistaken, for it is the third largest lake as you travel east from the Caspian, the Aral coming first, Lake Balkash second, and then Ala-kul.

A belt of desert marked with desiccated lake-beds and sand-waves, about sixty miles in extent,