4i6 DZUNGARIA 



the exception of the Turfan depression, which is actually 

 below sea-level. Several deep-cut valleys drain the 

 waters from these highlands into the gorge and supply 

 the waters of Lakes Zalanash and Ala KuL On the east 

 the exceedingly arid and denuded slopes of the Barlik 

 rise at an easier gradation than do the ranges to the 

 west. The country immediately facing the depression 

 on the east is barren, rugged, and scarred with dry 

 ravines ; farther back it rises eventually to about 

 5,000 ft. in altitude. The actual floor of the depression 

 consists of a smooth, level, gravelly steppe, swept clean 

 of all loose material by the winds which unceasingly rush 

 backwards and forwards through the trough. At the 

 northern end of the gorge reed-beds extend over the 

 swampy southern end of Lake Zalanash ; there are also 

 reed-beds and a little grass close to a small spring of 

 water near the centre. 



The general aspect, however, is "an abomination of 

 desolation," the scene of perpetual storms and great 

 extremes of climate. During the winter the choice of 

 a bad day to cross the depression may cause disaster 

 to both man and beast, while in summer the intense heat 

 experienced in this low hollow is almost as dangerous. 

 Our own experience of crossing in June was not of the 

 most comfortable nature, our horses and dogs being 

 lamed by the roughness of the surface and exhausted 

 by the heat. 



As a geological and physical phenomenon, the Dzun- 

 garian Gate is as unusual as that of the Jordan depres- 

 sion. They are both examples of a rift-valley caused by 

 the movement of the earth's crust, not by the action of 

 water. This valley once formed the connecting link 

 between the drainage of Dzungaria and that of Southern 



