CHAPTER XVIII 



BARKUL, THE BOGDO-OLA, AND ACROSS DZUNGARIA 



The Barkul ^ basin is a topographical feature by itself, 

 having nothing to do with Karlik Tagh or Kumul. It 

 is a self-contained world, little influenced by the sur- 

 rounding regions, for mountains border the basin on the 

 south and deserts fringe it on the north ; it lies, moreover, 

 on the road to nowhere and has little through- traffic. 

 Barkul is neither arid Turkestan nor desert Dzungaria, 

 but a plateau-basin of such equable climate that men can 

 till the soil without the laborious construction of irri- 

 gation-canals, and can pasture their flocks without fear 

 of drought. It is not only the unique climatic condition 

 of the Barkul basin that causes us to consider it a separ- 

 ate district, but politically and ethnographically it is 

 divided from the Khanate of Kumul. For although in 

 the eastern portion may be found Taghlik settlements 

 subject to the Khan, the basin is really utilized and ruled 

 by the Chinese. 



I shall not forget my first impression of the Barkul 

 uplands. After the horses had struggled, belly-deep, 

 through the snow on the northern side of the Chagan- 

 bulak Pass, and we had picked our way through the deeper 

 drifts which lay in the forest-belt down to the grassy 

 fiats below, I eventually reached the friendly shelter 



^ I use the form Barkul for the town and Bar Kul for the lake, in 

 accordance with the Russian system. 



II— 14 527 



