NOTES ON ARCHEOLOGY. I 15 
OLD CANALS NEAR SON KUL. 
The well-grassed foothills of the Kok-tal range north of the Son Kul outlet bore 
the marks of ancient irrigating canals that gave us much surprise, as the region 
does not suffer from dryness to-day. The abundant pasture on the foothills and the 
piedmont slopes is testified to b}- the great number of cattle driven up there for the 
summer by the Kirghiz. The canals are now almost obliterated, yet they are 
indubitably of artificial origin. The Kirghiz seemed to know nothing about them. 
They have been so far filled by the creeping of waste from the upper slope that 
they appear as benches 5 or 10 feet wide, instead of as channels. They lead with 
gentle descent from a stream along a hillside at different levels. Gullies, more or 
less grassed over, often descend the slope below the canals, marking the paths of 
accidental o\-erflows. 
Similar nearly obliterated canals were seen on one of the northern spurs of 
the Kok-tal range as we descended from the Kum-ashu Pass into the Tuluk Valley. 
Their course was observed to better advantage the next day, when we stood on the 
large moraines on the north side of the valley and looked across to all the spurs on 
the other side at once. Three canals were then seen on one spur at different levels. 
The uppermost, estimated to be 700 feet above the Tuluk-su, pa.ssed around the 
ridge line of its spur and turned into the next ravine on the east. Another one on 
a neighboring spur ran out to the spur ridge, and then followed down the ridge 
into the main valley. As on the other side of the range, these old canals all started 
at a stream and led forward on the side of a spur, and down-slope gullies from the 
canals frequenth- marked the paths of overflows. 
THE ISSIK KUL DISTRICT. 
The car\-ed standing stone, shown in fig. 80 was photographed by Mr. Hunt- 
ington on the plain at the east end of Issik Kul. The following notes are from the 
same observer. Walls or mounds are found at ten or twehe places on the fertile 
piedmont plains northeast of the lake. They are generally arranged in lines run- 
ning roughly north and south. Those that were examined consisted of a circular 
or oval wall of cobble stones, from 10 to 30 feet high, covered with earth. In the 
smaller examples the center also was filled with earth, so as to fonn a mound. In 
the larger examples the center was unfilled, and fonned a hollow within the wall. 
The only clue as to the age of these monuments in relation to the history- of Issik 
Kul was furnished b\- a small mound, 14 miles east of Sazanovka. The mound in 
question stands on the edge of the bluff, the base of which has been cut back by the 
30-foot shoreline (the same shoreline is at 25 feet over the lake farther west), and 
the edge of the mound has thus been cut back so that one-third of its area is under- 
mined and lost. The cobbles and bowlders of which the wall of the mound was 
made are scattered at the base of the bluff It would thus appear that the mound- 
builders lived around Issik Kul before the 30-foot beach line was abandoned by 
the lake. 
