CHAPTER XXXIII.
FROM THE ANAM BARU I N-GOL TO THE DESERT-RANGE.
The preceding chapters of this, and the whole of the first, volume, being the text to my atlas, have dealt exclusively with the physical geography of the lowlands in the centre of Asia. Before I proceed to give a general résumé of the hydro-graphical system of the Tarim as a whole, I must first devote a few words to yet one more journey across the desert, between Anambaruin-gol and Toghrak-kuduk, that is across that part of the Desert of Gobi which lies between the Kara-koschun, Sa-tscheo, the Astin-tagh, and the Kuruk-tagh, in the course of which journey I crossed the east-north-east extension of the desert that Prschevalskij calls the Kumtagh. This journey was performed immediately before that to the Bei-schan and Kuruk-tagh described above, and before the levelling of the Desert of Lop. Consequently I had the same equipment as on that occasion, namely seven men, ten camels, and three horses.
I had occasion to send back to Abdal two or three of my men with some horses from the point where the Anambaruin-gol breaks through the outside border-range of the Astin-tagh, where I had one of my principal camps of control. One of the men I sent back, Tokta Ahun, was especially well acquainted with the region, and had repeatedly made the journey between Abdal and Anambaruin-gol. I therefore seize the opportunity to name the points at which he intended to halt during his journey, and I do it the more especially as I myself never travelled by that route, and consequently am unable to give any personal description of it. The road runs along the northern foot of the Astin-tagh proper, but is apparently for the most part separated from the desert by hills and low elevations. The first halt Tokta Ahun proposed to make was west of the pass of Schi-lang-to, the succeeding stages being Ku-schui-cha, Lap-chi-tjuentsa, Toghrak-bulak, Kamuschluk-bulak, Chodscha-schukur, Kum-bulak, Tasch-köl, Göletschen, Dscho-bulak, Musluk-saj, Kosch-bulak, SimilanuDschan-bulaghi, Basch-kurghan, Toghraklik-tokaj, Tatlik-bulak, Hunglughu, Dungluk, and Abdal, all being places where there exist springs and grass. The journey could thus be performed comfortably in nineteen days. My man was a reliable man, and I have therefore reason to believe that the names which I have just enumerated are correct. They also agree tolerably well with the names recorded by Littledale, who
Hedin, ,journey in Central Asia. H. 60
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