FROM THE KONTSCHE-DARJA TO THE FOOT OF
THE KURUK-TAGH.
I started for my first excursion to the Desert of Lop on the 5th March i 900. My principal object was to investigate and map the old dried-up river-bed, the beginning of which I had observed starting from the Kontsche-darja in 1896,* and the continuation of which towards the east was confirmed by Kosloff at two points during the Russian expedition of 1893-95, under the leadership of Roborovskij. To the river-bed which he noted Kosloff gave the name • of Kum-darja, or the Sand River; he regarded it as an older channel of the Kontsche-darja. His acquaintance with the
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