UNINHABITED REGIONS 
963 
bourhood of our camp, developed locally into a cyclone. 
In an instant down went my tent flat with the ground. 
Fortunately my instruments were all packed up, so that 
none of them were injured. 
I settled with five of the Taghliks, including the 
lying aksakal, and they returned home on foot, very glad 
at not being obliged to go further. We still had eight 
Mountaineers left with us. 
The Taghliks called the neighbourhood where we en- 
camped Bulak-bashi (the Head of the Spring). This was 
the last name 1 entered on the way to unknown Tibet, and 
indeed the last Turk! place-name I wrote down during my 
Asiatic journey. In my journal I have called that place 
camp No. I. ; and the place where we encamped beside 
the source of the Kara-muran on August 8th, camp No. II. 
A small brook, one of the head-streams of the Kara- 
muran, flowed past the camp at Bulak-bashi ; but after 
we advanced a little way up the valley it became dry. 
When the stream is low, the water evidently ti ickles along 
underneath the gravel, and bursts forth into daylight lower 
down. In contrast to the sharply accentuated transverse 
glens through which we had hitherto been travelling, the 
valley of the Kara-muran expanded towards its upper ex- 
tremity ; the surrounding mountains decreased in relative 
altitude, but still formed continuous chains of massive 
proportions, which stretched out their spurs into the valley. 
The stream was bordered on each bank by a conglomerate 
terrace, which diminished in elevation in proportion as we 
ascended. The sai was barren nearly all the way. The 
only vegetation was yappkak ; and their thinly scattered 
tufts only grew in those spots which the water could leach. 
The roots were hard and tough. The floor of the valley 
was covered with fine compact gravel, easy to travel over. 
There was not the smallest vestige of a path, nor any 
evidence of human beings having been there before us. 
The last indication of the presence^of our fellow-men was 
the cairn of stones on the pass of Kum-boyan. 
After a while the conglomerate terraces came to an end 
altogether, and the sai was furrowed by a gieat number of 
