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| Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia, 1899-1902 : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
ROBOROVSKIJ, PRSCHEVALSKIJ AND FUTTERER ON THE KURUK-TAGH. 97
Pjevtsoff's general map,* on which the »Range Sinir» forms the immediate eastward continuation of the Chara-teken-ula.
After these various perplexing statements, it is quite a relief to turn to Prschevalskij's account of his ever-memorable journey to the Lop country. Briefly, clearly, and lucidly he gathers up his own experiences of the Kuruk-tagh in the following passage: —
»Before reaching Lake Lop we had to march due south and strike the valley of the Tarim at a point eighty-six versts distant from Korla. For some way the country has the appearance of an undulating plain, covered with a pebbly or gravelly soil, and totally devoid of vegetation, forming a belt twenty to twenty-five versts wide, more or less, running parallel to and at the foot of the Kuruk-tagh, a low, waterless, and barren range, forming the last arm of the Tian Schan in the direction of the Lop-nor desert. This range, as we are told, rises on the southern shore of Lake Bagarash, and after continuing for nearly two hundred versts to the east of Korla merges in the low clay or sand hillocks of the desert.» .*
Here Prschevalskij says, quite correctly, that the Kuruk-tagh ought to be considered as the eastward continuation of the easternmost wing of the Tienschan a range which on the map of the Russian General Staff bears from west to east the following names in succession — Bughur, Kok-teke, Bajdan, Terskej, and Chalik-tau, and in the extreme west under the name of Kok-schal borders the valley of the Tauschkan-darja. In this long range occurs also the peak of Kan-tengri (6890 m. — Friederichsen). From what Prschevalskij says about the Kuruk-tagh rising on the south shore of the Baghrasch-köl, it would seem that he regards it as a single range.
T. Douglas Forsyth, who visited East Turkestan three years before Prschevalskij, says with regard to this same lake — though his information about its eastern parts rests upon native evidence only — in his Introductory Remarks to Delmar Morgan's work, »It (Baghrasch-köl) is separated from the Lop district to the south by the Kurugh Tagh, a wide range of sandy and gravelly ridges, amongst the hollows of which the wild horse and wild camel breed. There is a road between the lake and this range, seven day's journey from Korla to Ush Aktal (Uschak-tal), and there is another along its southern side, between it and Lop, seven day's journey from Kara Koshun to Turfan.» *** Thus Forsyth too looks upon the Kuruktagh as a single chain.
From a glance at Prschevalskij's original map, or rather the maps which are attached to the English and German translations of his book, t it is also apparent that there is only one mountain-range shown, and that it forms the immediate continuation of the Tien-schan range already spoken of, the. only break in which is the gorge of the Kontsche-darja above Korla. There are, it is true, several spurs on the east side of this picturesque gorge, but they are only ramifications of the most westerly part of the Kuruk-tagh, and are separated by minor side glens. Thus the confusion which has crept into our maps with regard to the orography of the
* Trudij Tibetskoj Expetlitsij.
*0 From Kulja, across the Tian-Schan to Lop-nor; translated by E. Delmar Morgan, p. 54. *** Ibid., p. 23.
t Peterm. Mitteil., Ergänzhft No. 53.
Hedin, `journey in Central Asia. II. 13
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