132 EXPLORATIONS IN TURKESTAN. 
There was much dead tape-like grass on the shore, but as there seemed to be none 
fresh, it nia}- ha\-e been washed out of the gray clays deposited at a higher level, 
which are well matted with a similar grass (p. 139). 
Most of the streams rising in the melting snows of the inclosing mountains 
disappear in broad, stony fans extending from their base. The whole zone border- 
ing the mountains is thus characterized by a topography of interlocking fans, while 
the foot-hill rock-masses are largely buried 
in their own talus. For this reason the desert 
surface consists, for the most part, of bare 
steppes of small angular or sand-polished 
stones. In places there are flying sands, 
and certain areas bordering the mountains 
are covered witli moraine with a surface 
somewhat modified by the deflation which 
naturally occurs in this atmosphere of 13,000 
feet altitude, where there is so marked a _ ..^ „ , , ,, ,, ^, 
. rig. V4. — Common type ot weathered bowlders. I he 
fluctuation of temperature from night to day light fragments strewn about it are parts of the 
and between sliade and sun. While we were '°""" """"■ 
there it went below freezing at night, but during llie day our faces were blistered 
by the dazzling simlight. Figures 90 to 94 give an idea of the striking forms of 
desert weathering. 
Except for a few deeply-rooted flowers in bloom and rare clumps of grass on the 
dry beds of streams, the Kara Kul desert is \-oid of vegetation. No man li\'es on 
it, and those who cross it with their caravans have difficulty in finding feed for their 
animals. The only wild animals .seen on the plains were a rabbit, a few ducks and 
gulls about the lake, and some vultures devouring the carcass of a camel on the trail. 
On the slopes of the bordering mountains there was more water and more life. 
A few mannots burrowed where the grass was thickest, but the characteristic beast 
was the Marco Polo sheep {Ovis poli)^ the largest of all wild sheep. Of them we 
saw two or three flocks, one of which numbered over fift}' sheep. 
After spending four days on the Pamir we recrossed Kizil-Art pass, and returning 
by our outward route, reached Osh again on July 17. 
DETAILED OBSERVATIONS. 
From the lowland plains of Fergana we had studied the Alai IMountains through 
our field-glasses, and recognized in them glacial fonns of erosion, such as amphi- 
theaters inclosed by sharp crescent ridges, and above them groups of cirques, and 
we thought we saw glaciers beneath the higher masses. Unfortunatel}', the old 
caravan route led us over a lower part of the range and did not bring us in contact 
with any records of glacial action until we reached the Alai \'alle}-. It can, how- 
ever, be stated that the famous Zerafshan glacier lies in a high longitudinal valley 
of the western extension of the Alai range, and that there are several other glaciers 
in the high mountains around it. Nowhere did we find any indication of a former 
regional ice-cap. Glacial remains with which we actually came in contact were 
confined to the Alai Valley, Trans-Alai Mountains, and Pamir. 
