FROM THE ALTAI TO THE ILI 417 



Siberia. The chain of lakes at either end of the valley 

 (Balkash, Ala Kul, Ebi Nor, etc.), are the remains of the 

 great Asiatic Mediterranean Sea ; if their waters were 

 to rise a few hundred feet they would break through the 

 Gate, flooding the plains to the north and south. Even 

 within the historical period it is probable that some of 

 these lakes, now quite isolated, were then connected. 

 Rubruck mentions that, when passing Ala Kul in 1254, 

 he could see " another big sea " through the gorge, and 

 that the two were connected by a river ; Rockhill, in his 

 translation of Rubruck, suggests that the other " big sea " 

 is Ebi Nor. This is improbable, however, Ebi Nor not 

 being visible from the Siberian side of the gorge ; my own 

 opinion is that it was the Zalanash Lake — in the northern 

 mouth of the gorge — that Rubruck saw. 



In prehistoric days the Dzungarian Gate must have 

 presented a still more wonderful sight. It then formed 

 a narrow strait joining the Dzungarian inlet with the 

 vast seas of Western Siberia. " This was probably in 

 the recent Quaternary and also in the Tertiary times. 

 Deep deposits of fine mud, now carved out by streams 

 into rolling downs, are to be seen on the north side of 

 the Barlik Mountains. There deposits containing marine 

 shells, which will probably prove to be Quaternary, rise 

 to the altitude of 3,100 ft. Near the Barlik Range there 

 is abundant evidence of marine glaciation, — the debris of 

 icebergs from a frozen sea. Nearer to the gorge the mud- 

 deposits begin ; they contain seams of pebbles, — false- 

 bedded, showing that the currents and tides must have 

 been strong. 



" One can picture the Dzungarian Gate in the Ice 

 Age: a narrow strait through which the Arctic-Aralo- 

 Caspian Sea ebbed and flowed into the seas of Central 



