| Help with proofs. | reproduction by three-colour process of selected specimens of ancient figured textiles, &c., the same high standard has been maintained. Owing to my return to India it had been impossible for me to see more than one proof of the text beyond Chapter VII. Even for the reading of that single proof the time available was very scanty and the conditions of work in camp or on travel far from favourable. Hence I have much reason to feel grateful for the valuable help rendered by Dr. L. GILÉS, who generously undertook the reading of all the proofs, especially in order to assure correctness of Chinese names and terms. Similar useful assistance was rendered by Miss J. JOSHUA with regard to the verification of all references, whether to Descriptive Lists, Plates, &c., or to other publications. In view of the difficulties created by the above conditions it was very reassuring that, under an arrangement approved by Government, it has been possible to entrust the reading of ` revises ' of the text from Chapter VIII onwards to Dr. E. NORMAN GARDINER, of Oxford. The same very competent scholar also kindly undertook to prepare the Indices. For the painstaking care he has bestowed upon this troublesome task I wish to express here my sincere gratitude. While I have been engaged in the labours now completed, my thoughts have ever turned longingly to those far-off deserts and mountains which have seen the most cherished portion of my life's work. Limitations of time have not allowed me to present a personal narrative of this journey. But readers who know my Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan and my Desert Cathay may well feel, when consulting this record of my third expedition, that the efforts faced by me in the field, notwithstanding the attendant hardships, meant for me less strain than the prolonged desk-work involved by the elaboration of its results. Whether Fate will allow me to visit regions of innermost Asia still calling for fresh explorations, only the future can show. But I feel gratitude for having been permitted, in the alpine peace of the same high mountain camp where twenty-nine years ago I planned the first of my Central-Asian journeys, to complete the record of the third. AUREL STEIN. CAMP, MORAND MARG, KASHMIR: August 25, 1927. |
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