IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
CHAP. xiv.] NIGHT ON ULUGHAT-DAWAN 239
of Khotan with the system of the Indian Surveys, on which the determination of its exact longitude depends, had long been sought for in vain. Yet here a position within a few days' march from Khotan, to which luck and, perhaps, a little topographical instinct had guided us, gave the desired opportunity. It only remained to pray for a clear sky on the morrow.
The sunset on the grand chain of the south was a sight of incomparable beauty. Long after the serrated crests of the intervening ranges had sunk into blueish shadows, the icy peaks beyond the glaciers which feed the western tributaries of the Yurung-kash continued in brilliant sunlight. Then one after the other shone in rosy tints until the glow became a deeper and deeper red, to pass away into purple and darkness. At last, only the grand dome of ` Murtagh,' with its highest pinnacle shaped like a Phrygian cap, and our newly discovered Kuen-luen Peak No. 1 reflected the light of the sun that had long before set for us.
The changes of colour in the tints of yellowish haze over the plains were delightful to watch. But the increasing cold and the wind that sprung up from the east soon drove me down to the tent. There a cup of tea boiled from the water I had brought up in my water-bottle was for hours the only refreshment my establishment could offer. There was no trace of Islam Beg and his water supply. But I cheerfully put up with the prospect of not eating my dinner until next morning, in view of the result which to-day's work promised.
The glorious sight of the full moon rising below us soon drew me outside the tent. Her light was as clear at our altitude as I had ever seen it in India, and showed up every crag and
recess in the withered conglomerate ridges eastwards. She
looked as if rising from the sea when first emerging from the haze of dust that hid the plains, and her light shimmered on
its surface. But when she climbed high up in the sky it was no longer a meek reflection that lit up the plain below. It seemed as if I were looking at the lights of a vast city lying
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