226 Information regarding the Kirghiz Steppes and Turhstan. [Aug. 
descriptions of Blaramberg* the name of the lake spoken of should have been 
changed into Chelkar-Dengis, a designation common to many lakes in the 
Kirghiz Steppes. Blaramberg reckons that there are four Chelkars in the 
Orenburgh Steppes and Selverhelm says there are threef in the Siberian 
Steppes. The word “ dengis,” in Russian “ more” (a sea), is inserted in 
maps to denote either lakes of a considerable size, or to signify that the body 
of water alluded to has a bitter or brackish taste. In the more modern de¬ 
scriptions of the Orenburgh Steppes by Meyer, a lake in one place is called 
“ Chelkar,” and in another “ Ak-Sakal-Taup.” The Kirghiz use the latter 
designation, whilst the Russians used to call a lake in those parts Ak-Sakal- 
Barbi. No doubt by mistake the word came to be applied to fresh water- 
lakes. J The “Book of the Great Survey” here goes on to speak for the 
second time of the mouth of the river Emba. Let us now turn to the 
further indications of this book relative to the river Irgiz and lake Akbasli- 
li. (p. 69.) 
“ And opposite those rivers (the Uruk-Irgiz and others) the river Saiik 
falls into the same lake on the left side after receiving the waters of the 
Bozin-Hinchal-Ilgen.” The omission from modern maps of the Sauk and 
Bozin does not give us the right to conclude that this indication is wrong. 
The conversion of Ak-Sakal-Barbi or Ak-Sakal-Taup into Chelkar has 
already shewn us how completely without rule are names sometimes chang¬ 
ed. In the word Ak-Sakal-Taup we are supposed to hear still the sound 
of the Sauk of the “ Book of the Great Survey.” In like manner the fact 
that the names of the mountain Buzfin Khan, and of the Buzun sands, 
which, whilst marked on Tevshin’s map of the Kirghiz Stejjpes as more to 
the north than Ak-Sakal-Barbi, i. e., about Polkoyak and Tiirgaya, are 
altogether omitted from modern maps, shows that the name of the river 
Bozin was not an invention of the “ Book of the Great Survey.” We 
find in the following testimony of Abul Ghazi Bahadur Khan a confirma¬ 
tion of the existence of the river Sauk. Baty, on his return from Russia 
(about the year 1243), when assigning a lot to his youngest brother, Saiban 
Khan, says: “ Thou wilt have the entire country, which lies between the 
possessions of my eldest brother Idyen my own : thou wilt pass the' sum¬ 
mer on the Irgiz-Sauk, or, Ilek and east of the Yaik almost to the Ural 
mountains and the winter in Kara Ivum Arakum, on the banks of the 
* Military Statistical Review of the land of the Kirghiz-Cossacks of the Lesser 
Horde (*'. e., of the Trans-Ural Kirghiz of the Government of Orenhurgh). St. Peters- 
burgh, 1848. (Page 66.) 
t Selverhelm, “ Military Statistical Review of the Kirghiz Steppes of Western 
Siberia.” St. Petersburg!], 1862. (Pages 29 to 41.) 
X Materials for the Geography and Statistics of Russia, collected by officers of the 
General Staff. The Kirghiz Steppe, in the Government of Orenburgh by Meyer, 
(pp. 47 to 61). St. Petersburgh, 1865. 
