Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/66

Rh, although the elevation above sea-level is at least 9300 feet. But the descent on the other side is extremely difficult. For about forty versts the barely-distinguishable track follows the defile of the Habtsagai, and for twenty-two versts further that of the Balgantai river. Both these ravines are exceedingly narrow (in places not more than 400 feet wide), their beds strewn with débris of rock and pebbles, and their sides walled by huge precipitous cliffs.

The banks of the streams are thickly covered with willow and tamarisk bushes; lower down, at an elevation of about 6000 feet, buckthorn and elms appear; and, still lower, barberry and oleaster; the only grasses found in the ravines are lasiogrostis and reeds. The surrounding mountains are entirely bereft of vegetation, the neighbouring desert having affixed the seal of death on this side of the Tian Shan. Atmospheric precipitations, although plentiful on the northern side of the range where the rain-clouds deposit their moisture, the last drops of which are wrung out by the snow mountains of cold Yulduz, are absent here, and it is exceedingly probable that the whole southern slope of the Eastern Tian Shan is arid and barren.

Upon entering the Kaidu valley we descended to 3400 feet above sea level. The weather became warm, and the morning frosts no longer severe; whilst in Yulduz, towards the end of