51 



snow so that in the strong sunlight it is dazzling to the eyes. 

 Very often this is all that is to be seen, one can walk hund- 

 reds of paces without finding a plant. In some places the 

 salt crackles under the feet, in other places the soil is soft 

 to the tread because under the salts, it is moist or wet. One 

 slips frequently on the greasy greenish-brown clay. In such 

 a place the water-table may be barely 1 metre below the 

 surface. 



Fig. 2. "Ssor" (Salt-desert) near Buchara. The ground is white with salt 



and occtfpied by scattered Aeluropus littoralis and Halostachys caspica (the 



bushes). Month of May. 



In small depressions the soil is brown, because here it 

 is so wet that the salts are kept permanently in solution. 

 Also on small elevations the soil may be brown and only 

 coated with a thin, granular, hard incrustation. Towards 

 summer the salt in some places becomes dry and dusty. 



The salts are mainly sulphates especially of sodium and 

 magnesium, but there is also gypsum and common salt 1 ) 

 Crystals of gypsum are sometimes found in the earth. 



') See above p. 9. 



