178 
THROUGH ASIA 
are called by their kinsmen in Fergana by the one common 
appellation of Sarik-kolis, or people of Sarik-kol. 
The statistics which I have just given demonstrate how 
thinly the Pamirs are inhabited. Nor could anything 
different be expected, considering the characteristics of 
the region — the intense cold, the frequency and fury of 
the snowstorms, the few pasture-grounds and their scanty 
supplies of grass. Of the two self-contained internal 
drainage-basins, Kara-kul and Rang-kul, the latter only 
has a settled Kirghiz population. The Kara-kul Kirghiz 
are true nomads. At the period of my visit to the lake 
their tents were pitched some little distance away on the 
south and south-west ; its .shores were entirely unoccupied. 
The grazing-grounds in the vicinity are frequented during 
the .spring, summer, and autumn. But there is no grass 
during the winter ; it is cropped too close by the sheep 
in the latter part of the autumn. Sometimes the Kirghiz 
from Rang-kul migrate to the steppes round Kara-kul for 
the summer grazing. 
