1839] Mussian Mission from Orenbourg to Bokhara. 145 



some bitter salt. Our Cossacks, guided by the Kirghiz, from a distance 

 of about 2 verstes to the right, brought us common salt, which they found 

 in layers of one or two inches thick. 



The salt of these lakes is not so strong as our common kitchen salt, 

 and is mixed with a great deal of earth, though perfectly white. From 

 Coul-koudouk we met several of these salt lakes in the desert, and 

 frequently a space of 10 verstes, is covered with a white efflorescence 

 of a fine white powder, which rises in passing through it. 



The 9th November, we halted near the hill of Sari-boulak, after hav- 

 ing passed near Sirkanatji, the highest peak of the mountains of Mough- 

 odjar, to the little Borzouks sandy hills, or dunes, which commence 

 to rise about 10 verstes from where we were, and resemble the 

 great Borzouks. "Where we crossed them, they were not more than 2 verstes 

 in breadth ; the sand which was frozen did not appear to be deep. Both 

 the little and great Borzouks are near the lake of Aral; these last have a 

 northerly direction, and the other extends in greater masses between the 

 lake of Aral and the Caspian, ending about 10 marches from Khiva. The 

 country continue 1 to undulate and the slopes were always very gradual, 

 the armoise (mothwort) is the only plant which our horses had to sub- 

 sist on, for from the Moughodjar there is no forage. After passing 

 Akhchekoudouk we saw to us a new species of thorn, well known in 

 the desert under the name of saksaoul. 



The Kirghiz and all the people who dwell in the desert set a high 

 value on this plant ; the charcoal of which remains alive during half a 

 day. If fire is made with the saksaoul, in the evening the embers slowdy 

 consume to a white cinder, keeping a gentle heat in the tent all night, 

 this shrub is a species of the tamarisk ; it has a leaf like the juniper, a 

 brownish yellow bark, the wood is very hard, heavy, and more easy to 

 break than cut. The saksaoul is little more than two inches in diameter 

 in this quarterjbut near the Djan-deria it becomes a tree of a half foot in 

 diameter, and 12 in height, and so numerous as to form perfect thickets. 



The southern part of the Sari-boulak is remarkable for a great num- 

 ber of excavations, extending two or three verstes. The northern side 

 of the hill is covered with worm-wood, and the slope is easy ; the south 

 side is composed of barren clay ploughed up by torrents, or scooped into 

 caves, surrounded by precipices 20 or 30 toises high, I climbed one of 

 these eminences, and found layers three or four feet thick of little shells, 

 as well as some fossil shells about 2 or 3 inches long, and a great quantity 

 of the bones of fish, scattered over the sides of the hiil. From the sum- 

 mit of the Sari-boulak, I discerned the hills of Kouk-ternak,wdnch are at 

 a distance of 60 verstes ; the sea of Aral approaches their base. 



I remarked to our Kirghiz the traces I had observed on the Sari-bou- 



