TARINI, the river which gives its name to the great basin be tween the Tien Shan and Kunlun mountain systems of central Asia. The area of the basin is over 350,000 sq.m. and the length of the river may be said to be about i,000 miles. The mountain frame dies away to the north-east in the arid Gobi, so that beneath the slopes of the Kunlun lies the Kansu highway from China. The river is formed by the confluence of the Kashgar and the Yarkand ; it then flows for some 23om. north-eastwards between high banks, bordered by poplars and reeds,'and joins the Aksu, a swift and powerful stream from the north; 20M. further on the Khotan river flows in from the south, and after another 15om. it begins to come into direct conflict with the sand dunes of the great desert and to form lateral lakes in the hollows between the great dunes, which the Khotan river has had to fight in the lower part of its course. Numerous streams flow in from the Kunlun northward parallel to and east of the Khotan river, but lose themselves in the desert, and the Khotan reaches the Tarim only some 4o days in a year. Further to the east the Tarim breaks up in deltaic fashion and swings north and south. Here it skirts the north-east front of the great dunes and has a number of long lakes on its course, stretching mostly north to south or north-west to south-east. The lakes act as filters and the river emerges from them bright and clear. A little north of lat. 4o, at Airylgan, it receives the Koncheh river, which issues from the lake called Bagrach-Kol. This river has poplars on its left bank which hinder the spread of the desert from the north-east. Below Airylgan the remains of the river, which has diminished practically all the way down from its confluence with the Aksu, enter the dwindling lakes of Kara-Buran, a sort of ante-room to the real terminal basin of the river, the Kara-Koshun (Lop-Nor, q.v.) at an altitude of 2,675 ft. above sea-level. In 1900-01 Dr. Sven Hedin discovered several fresh desert lakes forming to the north of Kara-Koshun, and branches of the deltaic arms of the Tarim, or overflows of such branches, straining out in the same direction ; facts which he interpreted as showing a tendency of the river to revert to its former more northerly terminal basin of the old (Chinese) Lop Nor.
The lower part of the course of the river is, on the whole, moving south-westward into lower ground. Its course is so
sluggish that sediment is deposited in its bed, which is thus raised above the surrounding country. The river is usually frozen during December, January and February. The thaw in March causes'a flood, followed by a greater one, due to the melting of snows on the mountains, and the high water can be traced down the river during the summer.
The basin is often divided into four main regions:—(a) The Takla-Makan desert (q.v.) or central area of bare drift-sand desert. Its borders on the west, north and east are determined by the belts of vegetation accompanying the Tisnaf, Yarkand and Tarim rivers respectively. The area has outliers beyond these riverine borders. (b) The oasis belts south of the Tien-shan, east of the Pamir and north of the Karakorum and Kunlun. The oases on the south lie between the gravel glacis of the Kunlun and the sands of Takla-Makan. The best known are Karghalik, Khotan, Keriya, Niya, Cherchen and Charkhlik. Those on the north include Uchturfan, Aksu, Bai-Kuche, Kuerhlei, Karashar, Turfan, Pichan and Hami. To the west the two chief ones are Kashgar and Yarkand. The cultivable areas are usually greater in the west and the north than in the south. (c) The terminal depression of Lop and the Turfan basin. The Lop basin con tains the terminal marshes of the Tarim river, the salt-encrusted bed of the former extension of Lop-Nor beyond the marshes, and the dune-covered area east of the final course of the Tarim river between it and the north-western shore of the old lake. The Tur fan depression is enclosed on the north by a portion of the Tien shan; on the west by an outlying range of the same, and on the east and south by the barren hills of the Kuruk Tagh. Within these boundaries there are belts of glacis, desert, oasis-cultivation and dune-covered desert, exactly as one finds them in the Tarim basin. (d) The Sulo-Ho basin, and the cultivated area along the route north of the Nan-shan, leading into Kansu from the eastern Tarim. The basin is covered with bare gravel, except for a narrow belt of vegetation accompanying the lower course of the river, and the limited area capable of cultivation by means of irrigation around the oasis of Tun-huang. South of Tun-huang accumulations of drift-sand, approach or overlie the foothills of the Nan-shan.