THE NORTHERN RANGES AND STEPPES. 
11 
THE RANGES AND STEPPES OF SEMIRYETSHENSK AND SEMIPALATINSK. 
Our hurried northward ride from Vyemyi across the Seven-river and Seven- 
house pro\inces, above-named — one in Turkestan, the other in Siberia — to the cit^- 
of Semipalatinsk, allowed no opportunity for deliberate observation, yet it gave a 
sight of certain pliysiographic features that could be appreciated e\-en from a rat- 
tling tarentass (fig. 45), and which deser\-e brief record. 
The post-road crosses a broad plain, apparenth' loess-co\-ered and certainly very 
dust}-, north of the Trans-Ili Ala-tau, and gradually descends to a bridge across 
the Hi River at Iliisk. North of 
the river ledges appear and the 
surface rises more rapidly. The 
upland plain continues to the 
northwest, where we saw in the 
distance a narrow, rock-walled 
gorge, through which the ri\er 
flows to the desert bordering Lake 
Balkash. A solitary- monadnock- 
like mound rose above the broad 
plain near the gorge. Northeast 
of Iliisk low mountains of sub- 
dued fonn were crossed in the early 
evening. 
The ne.xt morning a western 
spur of the subdued Borochoro 
range north of the Kok River, by 
Tzaratziu post-station, presented fonns that suggested block-faulting, and that 
found no explanation in the structure of the cPiStalline rocks of which it was 
composed. It had a nearly even sky line, an abrupt southern face with simple 
base line, and short, steep ra\ines. The ri\-er flows through an open \alle\- by 
Tzaratziu, but enters and lea\-es the valle>- by narrow gorges. Farther northwest 
and north the relief decreases. It was hereabouts that we saw the first of the loess 
drifts, described above. 
F.g. 43.- 
-A Tarentass at a Station on the Post-road between 
Vyemyi and Semipalatinsk. 
Fig. 46. — Rough outline of the Dsungarian Ala-tau, looking south. 
On the third morning we had passed the western end of the Dsungarian Ala- 
tau, and saw it to the south of Arasan station at sunrise. Its sky line is notably 
even, although the northern flank is deeply carved, as in fig. 46. It gains greater 
height and greater irregularity to the east. Between Arasan and Abakumof sta- 
tions we crossed a branch of this range by an open pass at about 4,000 feet eleva- 
tion, an easy rise from the south being followed by a steeper descent for the better 
