In the years 1854 to 1858 the three VON SCHLAGINTWEIT brothers undertook their important journeys in the western parts of High Asia, by which the Karakorum problem entered in a quite new era. Here we have only to deal with the part of their exploration that lies between Ladak and Khotan.
It was the great merit of the Schlagintweit brothers to prove that the Karakorum and the Kwen-lun were two entirely different mountain systems, that the Karakorum Pass was not situated in the Kwen-lun, and that the Kara-korum System was only partly the watershed of the rivers going to Eastern Turkestan. They discovered that the Kara-korum was indeed not only a very mighty system, but could even be regarded as the backbone of High Asia between 95° and 73° East. long. The slight precipitation conceals the fact that the Kara-korum is the highest of the three systems. To the west the Kara-korum divides itself into two branches : the Hindu-kush and Bolor-tagh. In its eastern half, about 85° East. long., the Kara-korum also divides into two branches of almost the same height. These branches bound to the north and south a comparatively inconsiderable depression , the direction of which is parallel to the watershed of the system. The lakes Tengri-nor and Namur-nor are regarded as situated in this depression which is open to the east. This view could not possibly be correct as the materials from where such conclusions could be drawn did not exist, even in 1871 when the work was published.' As a matter of fact the Kara-korum does not branch off at all, as it is at least double the whole way. But it is interesting to see that Schlagintweit believed in an eastern continuation of the system so far as to 95° East. long.
Further, the brothers found that the rivers beginning from the Kara-korum and running north pierce through the Kwen-lun in the same way as do the rivers running south through the Himalaya. Yarkand-darya, Kara-kash, and Keriya-darya
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