368 E. HUNTINGTON GLACIAL PERIOD IN NON-GLACIATED REGIONS 



LOP-NOR AND TPIE BaSIN OF LoP, IN CHINESE TURKESTAN 

 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE BASIN 



Turning now from Seyistan, we find that remoter regions present sim- 

 ilar phenomena. Between 1,600 and 1,700 miles east-northeast of Sejds- 

 tan, as far as from New York to Denver, the almost imknoAvn lake of 

 Lop-Nor lies in the heart of Asia, in the deserts of Chinese Turkestan. 

 Its altitude is about 2,600 feet above the sea, or 1,000 feet higher thaL 

 Seyistan. During the winter of. 1905-1906 I traveled almost completel} 

 around the lake, crossing the unexplored eastern end of the vast salt 

 plain of its old bed (plate 32). The lake and basin of Lop belong to 

 the same type as those of Seyistan. A lofty ring of snowy mountains 

 and plateaus encircles a vast desert area of sand and salt extending more 

 than 1,000 miles east and west and 400 north and south. Most of the cen- 

 tripetal streams wither away and disappear in monotonous slopes of pied- 

 mont gravel or in the sandy plain of the basin floor. A few of tlie larger, 

 however, from the north and west, unite to form the Tarim river, which, 

 as we have seen, terminates in the lake of Lop-Nor, 200 miles east of tbe 

 middle of the basin. Lop-Nor, which can scarcely claim to be a lake, 

 has an area variously estimated at from 60 by 13 to 75 by 18 miles, and 

 consists of beds of vigorous reeds growing in shallow water. At the 

 southwest end, near the mouth of the Tarim river, the water of Lop-Nor 

 is comparatively fresh, but farther east it is intensely salt, and there the 

 reeds come to an end. 



ABANDONED LACUSTRINE STRANDS OF LOP-NOR 



On all sides save near the river, the swamp is surrounded bv the salt 

 plain shown in plates 32 and 33. It has a length of nearly 250 miles 

 and a width of over 60. The plain is bounded by an old strand (plate 

 31, figure 2) about 12 feet above the present level of tlie marsh (1906). 

 Above this there are five other unmistakable strands at heights of 20, 35, 

 115, 300, and 600 feet, as determined by aneroid (plates 31-33). The 

 figures are only approximate. The lowest strand is at least 2 or 3 miles 

 from the lake and often 10 or 20. As I had no means of leveling, it 

 was impossible to ascertain the levels exactly. The two oldest strands 

 lie far back from the lake, and, as appears in plate 31, figure 1, are mucli 

 covered with talus. Nevertheless they can be clearly distinguished where 

 they lie at the base of high and much dissected bluffs cut by the lake 

 in huge fans of gravel, as at Jilluck, between Vash Sheri and Charklik, 

 and along the northern slope of the little range of Takia Tagh, 150 miles 

 farther east. At its maximum extent the lake was probably about 600 



