98 
EXPLORATIONS IN TURKESTAN. 
depth tlian it now possesses and "then heavily aggraded, mostly with gravel, but 
with some silt layers, so that its floor gained a breadth of 3 miles in its lower 
course. It was during this aggradation that we suppose the loess of the hillsides 
to have been supplied from the flood plain of the wandering river. Since then the 
river has returned to its fonncr habit of erosion and valley deepening, as a result 
of which several terraces have been developed. Those near the mouth of the Karalma 
(fig. 63), a branch from the north, are drawn in section in figure 64. Here the 
river is nearlj' 300 feet below the upper plain. Fans of half-mile radius are built 
on the plain by streams issuing from the range on the south. The \-alle\- is here 
bordered on the north side by bluffs of bedded conglomerate and silts, which 
rise several hundred feet above the upper plain, and show a moderate northwesterly 
dip, thus suggesting that there have been alternations of degradation and aggrada- 
Kig. 03. 1 enaces of the (western) Kugart, looking northeast. 
tion, associated with slight uplifts, in this district. The stream ran near the north 
side of its valley for the lower 30 or 40 miles, and the road that is projected to cross 
Kugart pass followed up the broad terrace plain on the south side ; but just above 
the village of Taran Bazaar the stream lies along the south side of the valley, 
where it is locally superposed on a belt of limestone to the south of its fonner course, 
and a narrow gorge results, as in figs. 65 and 66. We here met one of the engineers 
in charge of the road construction, who said it was intended to cut a roadway on 
the southern wall of the gorge, and thus avoid the necessity of bridging the river. 
In the meantime the Kirghiz ford the river just below the gorge and then follow up 
the terrace on the north side of the upper valley. We took guides for the ford, and 
were more fortunate than some wayfarers who had preceded us by a few hours, as 
one of their pack horses had been drowned in the crossing. 
