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PREFACE   ix

The complete Index of Local Names which I have added to these Appendices is primarily meant to facilitate reference to the maps in respect of parti-

   IMemoir f   cular localities. But in view of the special care I had taken about
the correct phonetic record of all names, I hope, it will in competent scholars' hands prove useful also for philological enquiries into the local nomenclature of that Eastern Turkish language which has spread its place names over vast regions of Asia. For the preparation of the General Index to the Memoir I am mainly indebted to the help of my archaeological assistant Miss F. M. G. LORIMER.

The text of my Memoir has derived much benefit from the painstaking attention which my friend Major K. MASON, M.Ç., R.E., qualified alike by knowledge

   Printing of   of the subject and by literary experience, has been kind enough to

Memoir.   J   Y   Y p >   5

bestow upon it both in manuscript and in print. To him and Captain W. E. PERRY, M.C., R.E., in charge of the Printing Office of the Trigonometrical Survey, I owe my thanks for manifold assistance during the printing of the Memoir.

The ready help of the Photo.-Litho. Office of the Survey of India, Calcutta, has made it possible to add to the Memoir the series of plates which, I hope, will

   Illustrations.   be useful in bringing before the eyes of the reader, whether of the
maps or the text, characteristic features of the ground in the mountains and deserts we surveyed. The photographs reproduced were taken by myself and have already partly served for the illustration of my Personal Narratives and Detailed Reports of the first and second journeys. For the reproduction of the panoramic views in Plates 3, 5, 7, I am indebted to the kind permission of the Royal Geographical Society which had first published them in my Mountain Panoramas from. the Pamirs and Kwen Lun.

If I have left it to the last to express my personal gratitude to my Indian surveying assistants it is merely because the Memoir itself shows how pre-

, Help of surveyors

ponderating was their share in the labours which the surveys recorded

   in the field.   1   :,   Y

in the maps have cost. I may safely leave it to those who will use our maps, whether in the field or in the study, to judge of the value of these labours. Of the self-sacrificing efforts which my travel companions had to make in order to carry out their tasks, mostly on desert ground or in equally forbidding mountain regions, I have had ample occasion to furnish proofs in the published accounts of my journeys. Rai Sahib RAM SINGH, the earliest of my companions in the field and skilful alike with plane-table and theodolite; Rai Bahadur LAL SINGH, the veteran of indomitable energy whose exertions neither risks nor hardships could ever restrain, and young AFRAZ-GUI, KHAN, now Khan Sahib, who, joining me last in the field, soon proved possessed both of a keen topographical sense and a true spirit of daring, they all faced their duties with unflinching devotion, in spite of severe trials and privations. In Gurkha, Sikh and Pathân I was fortunate enough to find ever faithful, hardworking companions, and with their help I shall always associate my happiest recollections of travel.

AUREL STEIN.

CAMP MOHAND MARG, KASHMIR

July 81, 1922.