EE Les 
nunculus pulchellus, Carex microglochin, Triglochin palustre, 
Primula sibirica, Hordeum secalinum var. brevisubulatum, Col- 
podium sp., Poa pratensisa var., Poa tibetica var., Bryum suba- 
culum, and the water plants Potamogeton amblyophyllus, and 
Hippuris vulgaris. 
Where the marshes are drier, they are white with salt, 
which enshrouds the tufts and encircles the pools. At the 
bottom of dried-out water-basins is a 3 cm thick salt crust 
over the mire. Here Carex orbicularis and Kobresia Bellardi 
are the main elements of the vegetation, while Potentilla deal- 
bata is also common. 
3. Near the little lake of Tuz-Kul, — (the name means 
‘salt-lake’), and near other lakes in its vicinity, considerable 
quantities of salt have been deposited on the surface of the 
ground, along the banks of the lakes and on the intervening 
stretches. It is apparent that water containing salt must ooze 
up from under the ground. (See above page 38.) Although 
it was in the midst of a dry season several small springs 
were observed, in which water gushed slowly and perpendicu- 
larly up from the ground. The miry springs, described above, 
seem to indicate the same. 
The belt of salt encircling the lake of Tuz Kul varies in 
breadth according to the declivity of the slopes. On one side, 
where they are comparatively steep, it is only '/s mètre broad, 
but in other places it is about 100 métres broad. The salt is 
glistening white with a loose dusty surface. Underneath is a 
moist greenish brown layer of clay, with coal-black stripes 
and clumps. In dry places, where the salt was almost like 
dust, the thickness of it all was about 10 cm; where the salt 
was darker, wetter and more coherent, it was about 20 cm. 
Below the clay was sand. A blue-green alga was found 
everywhere underneath the wet salt. 
On a broad salt stretch, east of the lake, practically no- 
thing was growing, — only very sporadic specimens of a 
little grass, Atropis convoluta var. subscariosa and of Suaeda 
setigera. Near the north shore of the lake there was a tussock- 
salt-marsh stretch, where Carex pseudofoetida was the most 
important species; and besides Carex orbicularis var. bulun- 
ses 
