FROM THE ALTAI TO THE ILI 403 



Miroshnishenko found the flow of the river to increase 

 89,000 cubic ft. of water per minute, in spite of the fact 

 that the Irtish receives no tributaries throughout this 

 section of its course. The most recent scientific explorer 

 in these regions, Prof. Sapoznikoff, refutes this opinion, 

 basing his arguments on the following grounds. Firstly, 

 the water of the lake is at a lower level than that 

 of the Irtish ; secondty, the water is strongly saline 

 (2 gr. to the litre), a peculiarity of enclosed basins ; 

 and thirdly, neither the lake nor the river flowing into 

 it contain certain fish, peculiar to the Irtish. My own 

 opinion is that the Ulungur does not now connect with 

 the Irtish, although it may have done so at an earlier 

 period ; even then, it was not by the nearest route, on 

 the eastern side — where the Irtish and the lake are only 

 a few miles apart — but by way of the low-lying depression 

 on the west. 



We camped for a night in this plain, called Mukutai, 

 and noted that, although the ground was very saline, 

 good grass grew, and there was a very large en- 

 campment of Kirei making use of it for pasture. The 

 whole of this depression showed signs of being under 

 water at certain seasons ; it is dead level, and the Ulungur 

 Lake spreads itself into it for some way in the form of 

 lagoons and shallows having no definite boundary. A 

 small rise of water in the lake would bring a great area 

 of the Mukutai plain under water. We camped about 

 ten miles from the margin of the lake ; on the other side 

 of us, at about twenty miles' distance, there was a small 

 stream which drained direct towards the Irtish River, 

 and, were it not for lack of water, would undoubtedly 

 reach it. Thus it seems that, if at one period the water 

 of the Lake Ulungur stood at a higher level, it must 



