2o6 
THROUGH ASIA 
Next day I sent the caravan by the nearest road to 
the little fort of Rang-kul ; whilst I myself with four 
men started across the ice of Rang-kul to take soundinos. 
We only chopped out two holes, and found that the lake 
was as a matter of fact extraordinarily shallow, the two 
measurements giving 5 feet and 6^ feet respectively. The 
ice, on which was a thin sprinkling of snow, was 3 feet 
and 3I feet thick where the two sounding-holes were 
hewn. There was a small open channel close alongside 
the shore. The temperature of the water in the sounding- 
holes was 3I°6 Fahr. (-o°2 C.) ; at the bottom, which was 
covered with loose slime and mud, mingled with decayed 
vegetable matter, it was 37° (2°8 C.). The vegetable 
matter consisted almost exclusively of algse and sedges. 
The word ranga is used to indicate the sedge Carex 
physoides. All the same, it is more likely that the lake 
derives its name from the wild-goat which frequents that 
region, and which is known as the rang and the kiyick. 
The word Shor-kul means “salt lake,” and its waters 
were both salt and bitter. It was pretty evident that, while 
Rang-kul was fed by fresh springs and streams, Shor-kul 
derived its supplies from Rang-kul through the little sound 
already spoken of ; and that evaporation went on to a very 
much greater extent in the former, leaving the saline con- 
centrates behind it. In the eastern end of Rang-kul there 
was a long narrow island, barely a dozen feet high, but with 
perpendicular shores of soft greyish-blue clay, much eaten 
into by the waters of the lake. Vast numbers of wild 
geese are said to breed there every spring as soon as 
the ice melts. 
The soundings taken, we rode straight across the lake, 
and on to the fort, garrisoned by about two-score Cossacks 
under a commandant. We stayed there two days. We 
left the fort on the nth April, riding almost due east 
towards the little pass of Sarik-gai, which crosses a spur 
of the northern mountains. On the west side of the hill 
we were approaching, the wind, mostly coming from the 
west, had heaped up enormous masses of sand, shaping 
them into gigantic dunes or billows with a slightly 
