RECONNAISSANCE IN CENTRAL TURKESTAN. 
175 
TBB KASBGAR BASIN. 
South of the Tian Shan plateau, the second province, the Kashgar basin fonns 
the western part of the vast inner basin of Asia, known as the Takla-Makan and 
the desert of Gobi. Its flat, barren surface lies at ,an elevation of from 3,000 to 
4,000 feet above the sea and is ever^'where surrounded by lofty mountains. Those 
on the north and west rise from 10,000 to 15,000 feet above it, while to the south- 
west and south, in the Pamir and Kuen Lun, the heights are even greater. 
Muz-tagh-ata, one of the world's highest mountain peaks, is plainly in sight from 
Fig. 126. — View of the Tertiary strata on the edge of the Kashgar Basin west of Kashgar City. The 
layers here dip northwest away from the basin, which hes behind the observer. On the left several 
portions of an old grade plain probably represent the work of an early glacial epoch. 
Kashgar, towering above clouds to the tremendous altitude of 25,800 feet In few 
other parts of the world can so great a contrast of relief be seen at a single glance, for 
the parched plain in the foreground lies 21,500 feet below the snowy mountain peak. 
The lower part of the slope from the mountains to the plain, where I saw it on 
the north and west sides of the basin, consists of the upj^er Tertian,- fonnations 
(see fig. 126), while farther back toward the mountains lies the Mesozoic series. All 
the strata are deformed, but on the edges of the plain the outward dips are 
lessened, and the Tertiaries assume the fonn of a monocline with decreasing dip, 
pitching gently under the fonnations which are now accunnilatiug on the plain 
itself. If the dip keeps on decreasing under the basin floor, as seems probable, the 
Tertiary strata must soon become conformable with those of the Quateruan-. 
