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Chap. IV]   NOTES ON SHEETS No. 42   101

basin (A. 4) the appearance of belts of drift-sand and wind-eroded clay terraces, features common to all ancient lacustrine depressions further west, may be noted.

A stony plateau separates this basin from the ill-defined valley containing the end of the Pei-ta-ho above its junction with the Kan-chou river. The narrow but long-stretched cultivation areas of Chin-t'a and

Astronomically observed latitudes.

Mao-mei share the physical features characteristic of all terminal oases in the Tarim basin. The high dune ridges which stretch parallel to the Kan-chou river course on the east (D. 4), help to illustrate this similarity of aspect on the map.

Corrections. C. 4. For To-tun (Camp 235a) read T'en-tun.

NOTES ON SHEET No. 43 (SU-CHOU)

The surveys recorded in this sheet belong for the most part to the second expedition, but were to a considerable extent supplemented in the portions lying along the northern edge of the sheet and in its easternmost section by work done in 1914. The extensive routes surveyed on the second journey all closed upon their starting point, Su-chou (B.1), and the position adopted for this important city served as a pivot for the compilation of the sheet. The latitude of 39° 45' shown for it is derived from closely concordant astronomical observations made on both journeys at the temple of Chiuch'üan outside the eastern city gate. The longitude of 98° 33' now adopted represents the mean between Mr. Clementi's chronometrical value (98° 26' 56.3") and the value previously accepted by the Survey of India. It differs but slightly from the longitude assigned to Su-chou in Sheet No. 88 of the 1906-08 map in Serindia. The routes leading to Su-chou from the west and south-east have been adjusted on the accepted positions of An-hsi and Kan-chou, respectively (see Notes on Sheets Nos. 38, 46).

The southern portion of the sheet comprises an extensive mountain area occupied by the four main ranges of the Central Nanshan. Its delineation on the plane-table was greatly facilitated by the distant views gained from above the high passes over which the three northernmost of these ranges were crossed, as well as by the open character of the ground in the wide valleys which separate them. The topography of the high

spurs which descend from the Richthofen Range to the east of the Ma-yang-ho valley (C, D. 2, 3), received important additions by the survey made by R. B. L51 Singh in 1915 from the side of the Li-yuan-ho.

The approximate elevation of 15,500' feet, adopted for the snow-line in the portions of the Central Nan-shan falling within this sheet, is derived from what I observed when crossing its passes in August, 1907, and the photographic panoramas then taken support it.

For a fairly detailed descriptive account of the ground visited in 1907 between the plateau at the north foot of the Richthofen Range and the high mountain chain overlooking the headwaters of the Su-to-ho, Kan-chou and Ta-t'ung rivers from the south, see Desert Cathay, ii. pp. 297 sqq.; for that of the famous defile of Chia-vükuan, the westernmost ' Gate ' of China within the Wall ', and of the Su-chou oasis east of it, see ibid. ii. pp. 273 sqq. The historical topography of the ` passage land',. which this western end of the mediœval Great Wall' was intended to close, and that of the mountain region which adjoins on the south, has been discussed in Serindia, iii. pp. 1116 sqq., 1124 sqq. Brief references to the ground visited by me north of the Chinese high road passing from Kan-chou to Su-chou will be found in Geograph. Journal, xlviii. pp. 196, 200.

The area shown by this sheet aptly illustrates the three main regions into which the ground between the Central Nan-shun.