国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

Chap. IV]   NOTES ON SHEET No. 9   71

Khotan (pp. 123-235); see also Serindia, i. pp. 90 sqq.; iii. 1273 sqq.

Great as the differences in elevation and general configuration are between the several zones which this sheet comprises, from the Taklamakan sands up to the high K`un-lun ranges, extreme aridity characterizes them all. The vicinity of fertile loess soil to the debouchure of the rivers accounts for the large cultivated area in the main Khotan oasis and for the string of minor oases stretching along the glacis of the outer hills westwards and facilitating traffic. The narrowness of the deep-cut valleys further south confines irrigation, and hence cultivation, to small isolated patches barely sufficient to maintain a few little settlements of hillmen, such as Pusha, Nissa and Karanghu-tagh

(C, D. 4.) In spite of the thick deposits of fertile loess dust which the winds have carried from the desert plains up to the highest valleys, the aridity of the climate

reduces vegetation and grazing in these mountains to very modest limits. Communications through the mountains from north to south are difficult and owing to the impassable nature of the middle Kara-lash valley confined to very few routes.

CGrrections. Symbols of latitude station to be added for Camps 55-61 of 1900-01 (as per list below).

1. ] .—Sandy tract with scrub should have been shown W. of GOma as far as Siligh-langar.

2. 2.—A belt of drift-sand ought to have been marked at, and to the west of, Bél-kum, on route from Zanguya to Pialma.

B. 3.—The glaciers shown by R.B. Lal Singh on the northern slope of the range east of the Sanju-dawan, near peaks not rising much above 17,000 feet, are likely to be mere snow-beds.

D. 4.-A small patch of cultivation should have been entered at Omsha hamlet.

NOTES ON SHEET No. 10. (KARA-KORAM, KHITAI-DAWAN)

With the exception of the route from Shahidullah to the Kara-koram pass (A. 1), the area comprised in this sheet was surveyed at the close of the second expedition. - It shows interesting portions of the main Kunlun range near the triangulated peak 23,071 (Pk. 3/52m), where it bifurcates towards Muz-tagh (Pk. 1/61A) and the peaks near the sources of the Yurung-kash river; 9 also two of the drainigeless basins of the Tibetan uplands to the south.

For the construction of this sheet a number of triangulated points were available, 10 among them three determined in the Kashmir G. T. series. Those shown

9 See above p. 22.

near the Kara-koram route are taken from the work of Sir F. De Filippi's expedition, together with the clinometrical heights of peaks in A. 1. The value adopted for the approximate snow-line, 18,000 feet, is derived from the observations made near the Yangi-dawan and at the head of the Turgapjilga (C, D. 1). In A. 1 the limits of perpetual snow have been indicated in accordance with the map of Sir F. De Filippi's expedition.

A description of the route followed and of the ascent to the snowy col on the Kunlun watershed west of Peak 23,07] is given in .Desert Cathay, ii. pp. 463 sqq. For some-

1° See Appendix 4, pointe in 52 Y.

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