THE AGRICULTURAL SETTLEMENTS East of the Turgai lies Akmolinsk, low and dotted with salt lakes on the north, but rising to an undulating plateau in the centre, the dying down of the Tarbagatai and Chinghiz-tau ranges.
It is deeply cut by the northward flowing Ishim, and this northern region is fertile and dotted with agricultural settlements. Akmo linsk town has an average Jan. temperature of 1.5° F, July 7o° F, rainfall 9 in. South of the plateau, however, lies the desert region of the lesser Moyun-kum and the Bak-pak-dala or Famine Steppe, a plateau lying between the Sary-su and the Chu rivers.
The surface of this arid region is a friable sand, resting on chalk or chalky marl. Along the course of the Chu are Palaeozoic forma tions of the Devonian period, and limestone rocks containing fos sils. Vegetation and water are entirely absent in the Famine steppe, which presents great difficulties to the nomad herdsmen and to the caravan traders, and has thus earned its name. The most easterly province is Semipalatinsk, on the fringes of the Tian Shan mountain system. The snow-clad ranges of the Altai and Narym enter it on the south-east, stretching southwards to Lake Zaisan. The Kalbin (5-6,000 ft.) range continues from them westwards, and between the Kalbin and Narym is a broad valley through which the Irtish flows north-east from Lake Zaisan, and then turns north-west, cutting its way through the Altai, by a wild gorge with dangerous rapids, down which boats are daringly floated. Lake Zaisan, 8o m. long and 10-20 m. wide, is navigable for steamers, which may also pass down the Black Irtish to Kulja in Chinese Turkistan. Many extensions of the Kalbin-Narym complex stretch northwards. South of Lake Zaisan, the Tarbagatai (Marmots') Range 9-10,000 ft., extends westward, and the lower, but wild Chinghiz-tau, sends spurs into the steppe. The Kizil rai, further west, rises to 4,821 ft. Many varieties of crystalline rocks, granites, syenites, diorites, porphyries and slates are found in the mountain region, and there are gold-bearing sands, silver, lead, graphite, coal and precious stones. The boulders on the
mountains indicate a former much wider extension of glaciation. There are forests in the mountain region and on the Irtish plain, with Siberian flora in the north and Central Asiatic in the south. Wide steppes fill the space between the mountains; the Zaisan steppe between the Altai and Tarbagatai is 1,200-1,500 ft. above sea-level. In accord with its more continental situation the climate of Semipalatinsk is extreme. Frosts of F are not uncommon in winter and summer may reach 122° F in the shade. Precipita tion is slight, and rain falls in sudden heavy storms that may render the ground impassable for camels and cause disaster to the caravans. It is calculated that quite as many deaths in the steppe-desert fringe are due to starvation through these storms obliterating tracks and making it impossible for camels to move, as to thirst.
The two great lakes in Kazakstan are Balkhash or Denghiz and the Aral Sea. East of Balkhash lies Lake Ala-kul, which in post-Pliocene times was linked with it. Sissik-kul, to the north-west, and Ala-kul, are connected by a chain of smaller lakes. To the south and east of Lake Balkhash lie the sandy des erts of the Sary-Ishik-Otrau and the Tau-kum, through which the Ili discharges by a delta into Lake Balkhash. From these the land rises in the south to the Kunghei Ala-tau, north of Lake Issyk-kul, which dies out in the lower north-western spur, the Chan-tau. In the valleys and mountains, the climate is modified, and Alma Ata, altitude 2,405 ft., has an average January temperature 17° F, July 74° F, rainfall 21 in. per annum. Eastwards and southwards from the Sea of Aral stretch the sandy deserts of Kara-Kum and Kizil-Kum (q.v.), and to the north of the Syr-Darya, south of the Akmolinsk district, lies the great Moyun-Kum stretch of sandy desert. West of the Aral Sea, between it and the Caspian, lies the barren Ust-Urt plateau, consisting mainly of alkaline and gyp siferous desert, with patches of dry sandy desert.