HAMI, OR KUMUL 481 



send a stream in high flood across the plains. The 

 remainder of the year the water-supply is called " bulak," 

 meaning springs. All ordinary watercourses on the 

 plains around Karlik Tagh, even good-sized streams 

 used for irrigation purposes, are called " bulak," because 

 they originate from springs, and do not come continuously 

 from the snows. Now, a large group of strong springs, 

 such as is often found issuing out of old river-beds at 

 a distance of about fifteen to twenty miles from the 

 mountains, or in the depressions still farther away on 

 the desert, are invariably called " kul," a word like the 

 Mongol " nor," generally used to denote a lake or large 

 sheet of water, but here used to describe a spring-head or 

 a terminal marsh which may, or may not, form an area 

 of standing water. Iti Kul near Togucha, Shona Nor 

 at the end of the river of Kumul, and Toli Kul in the 

 desert to the south, are examples of Kumulik nomen- 

 clature. 



All these are localities of the same character, namely, 

 water-tables where the land-surface drops to the level 

 which permits water to appear above the surface. I 

 believe that the use of the word " kul " caused early 

 explorers to locate lakes, by hearsay, in a region where 

 merely springs exist. It is not too much to suppose 

 that Toli Kul is in reality a depression, in which, if 

 there were sufficient water, there would be a lake. The 

 water is never sufficient in itself to form a lake, as only a 

 meagre supply issues from underground, this being the 

 residue of occasional drainage from the higher land to 

 the north and east ; nevertheless, according to the 

 Kumulik idea, it is a " kul." No doubt, in former days, 

 when the climate was damper, a lake existed. For 

 the same reason that the lake has disappeared, the 



