276 THE LOP-NOR PROBLEM.
that the Lop-nor flitted over to the Kara-koschun all at once, by a single operation so to speak, and that it is »Mis flitting over» which took place in the year 1740. The last occurrence was merely one step, one moment, in a whole series of hydro-graphical changes. Indeed, thanks to the Si yii-schuei-tao-ki, from which in 1899 Mr Himly was so kind as to translate for me everything relating to Lop-nor, we see that names which are still retained in the country existed as early as 1722. We read there, »Beim Einfall der Söngaren wurden, als das erste Heer 1722 nach Turfan kam and es befestigte, die unter Ghurban stehenden Lop-nur-Turken von Kara-kul, Satak-tu, and Kara-khodscho, über I 000 Leute, die sie Land haben wollten, einverleibt.»* The names Kara-köl, and Sadak-köl, and Kara-koschun still exist, though we do not know whether they refer to the same places as in the year 1722.
Kosloff is perfectly right in suspecting, that the compiler of the Chinese map was ignorant of the position of Ajrilghan as fixed by the Jesuits. For my own part, I will go a good deal farther than he does, now that my knowledge of the country has been extended, and I have been compelled by facts to change to some extent the views which I expressed in 1896. I believe therefore that the compiler of the Chinese map was ignorant not only of the Jesuits' labours, but also of discoveries made by many Chinese before their time. For, allowing that the last change took place about 1740, there certainly existed a lake in the southern part of the desert before the year named, and of that fact the Chinese cartographer was equally ignorant. The lake in question was situated just about where we may suppose Pjevtsoff's Utschu-kul to have been, at any rate a good deal farther south than the ancient . Lop-nor. But the greatest and most radical change of all, one which resulted in the sweeping of several inhabited places from off the earth, in the emigration of entire tribes of people, in the abandonment and complete forgetfulness of ancient highways, in the dying out of entire forests, nay in the disappearance of a complete kingdom — namely the desiccation of the ancient Lop-nor — that is an occurrence which took place a very long time ago, at an era to which no traditions reach back, but which nevertheless actually did occur, as I fortunately am able to prove not only by documentary evidence, but also by facts, that speak a language sufficiently distinct. With regard to this Mr Himly says in his Preliminary Report entitled Sven Hedins Ausgrabungen am alten Lop-nur:** »Es ist nach dem allen kaum zu bezweifeln, dass hier ' das alte Lôu-lan war and am alten Lop-nur lag. — Diese alte Stadt scheint Anfang des vierten Jahrhunderts vom Wüstensturm oder von den Gewässern, bzw. durch beide Gewalten zerstört worden zu sein. — Man wird in der Nähe eine andre, die sogenannte Drachenstadt gebaut haben, welche dann ihrerseits in den Jahren 1308—II durch eine Sturmflut zugrunde ging.»
The force of nature by which the destruction of Lôu-lan was brought about was neither desert-storm nor flood of water, but simply the drying up of the lake. It is indeed conceivable, that a portion of the country of Lôu-lan may have lain on the southern shore of Lop-nor, and that the lake may itself in part have moved south in the same way as the Kara-koschun is now travelling towards the north; but as I discovered the ruins of the town of Lôu-lan on its northern shore, it must have
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