its density, that my instrument for the determination of
the specific gravity of different waters, and graduated
k T u t0 ! ° 0°’ W° uld not sink beIow a P°int which,
nad the scale been continued, would have read 1200.*
I was fortunate, or unfortunate, as the reader may
regard it, in not attempting to bathe in Sary Kamish.
member of Glukhovsky’s expedition found a stony
beach on the south-east of the upper lake, and, on
going in to have a swim, found the water so buoyant
that, at 100 paces from the beach, he could hardly
dive. The sub-strata of the water appeared a greenish
yellow, and viscous like oil, with a disagreeable odour,
that, in the course of a long walk on the beach, produced
in him a sensation of nausea. The buoyancy
o f the water reminded one o f the Dead Sea, which
these lakes resemble further in that the natives say
they contain no fish. The banks are deserted. Gulls,
Woodcocks, and Ducks, however, are sometimes seen
flying over the water, and we saw in the course of the
afternoon a Magpie and a Dun Crow.
Leaving the water to our left, we crossed a piece of
rising ground, and on looking back we had rather a
pretty view of the lakes, but the place was barren of
trees. We came about 3.30 to a promontory, Kakh-
Pular, and to sands on our left of the same name
whilst the sands to the right of the road are called
* Samples of Sary Kamish water, in 5 bottles, were taken by Glu-
khovsky s expedition, and each submitted to chemical analysis at the
Tashkend laboratory with the following results Specific gravity 105
at 58 . In 1,000 cubic centimeters of water there were, in each of
the 5 samples grains of solid matter from 40-92 the lowest, to 47-04 the
highest; sulphuric acid, 4-61 to 5-44; chlorine, ! 9-4I to 2179 chalk
2-03 to 2-57 ; magnesia, r86 to 2-09. Besides the foregoing, there are
in the waters of Sary Kamish,'in quantities not stated, natron, sulphuin
I o h i£ i ° gen’ ’ ’ Carbonic acid> and organic matter
Kyzyl-Kaia. A t Kakh-Pular we pitched our tent,
as my notes have it, “ near what looks like the dried
basin of a large lake.” *
We started on the morning o f November 14th, at 1,
stopped for 3 hours at sunrise, and at half-past 2
arrived at the cliffs, which had long bounded our
horizon. I have no note or recollection of the hollow
Way, or water-course, which, according to my map, we
must have crossed, but we noticed particularly at the
foot of the cliffs a narrow line of beach, or pebbles,
rounded apparently by the action of water, and mixed
with sand and shells, which we at first took to be
evidence indicative of an ancient sea shore ; and as we
were mounting a declivity, or natural ramp, in the
cliffs, it looked, in common parlance, just as if we were
emerging from the sea at low water, across beach
washed up by the'last tide, on the southern English
coast, and mounting the downs, say, at Newhaven or
Eastbourne. Then, on looking back from a height
one could think o f the vast expanse of land stretching
to the horizon as o f nothing else but the bed of a
former lake or sea.
It occurs to me to add that if at this point Jenkinson
emerged from the wilderness after 20 days’ journey
from Mangyshlak, and if the water then came up to
f * m iS pr6Cisely what the £uide t0 Glukhovsky’s expedition in-
l f f e m add“ S that the level ^eppe extended “ to the cliffs of
e Ust Urt, and there, at a distance of about a verst from their base
to the cbffT ” ■lowdand’ or rather a flat, hollow way, running parallel
to the cliffs, which perhaps served as the former issue of the Oxus flowing-
irom Sary Kamish towards the Caspian.” The commencement of the
Sarv Kamish e f U‘de sald’ was about r7 miles from the western bank of
thi7 f £ T Subsequent exploration would appear to have confirmed
°L my. * ussian map, 20 versts to the inch, the Oxus bed leaves
he Sary Kamish basm m a westerly direction, about 6 miles west of
the southern lake, and then quickly turns at right a % g l ^ S 2 h s
south, parallel to the Ust Urt cliffs, called here Ust-Kapfan-Kir
mm 26 '