IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
36o START FOR THE LOP DESERT CH. XXX
scattered lagoons of salt water. So I could safely steer my course by the compass, provided that Hedin's position for the ruins was approximately correct, without having to fear détours and loss of time.
We had marched for over two miles when we touched 1!
the southern end of such a salt lagoon which had formed d
part of the ' Yangi-köl ' or ' New Lake,' and to the Lop 0
fishermen was specifically known by that designation.
Though no fresh influx of water was said to have reached I
it for three years, fish were still plentiful in it, and near a 0
reed hut we found a great quantity of them stacked for J
drying. But now they were said to be dying off rapidly i
owing to the increased saltness of the water, and the men
caught plenty of moribund or benumbed fish with their R
hands from under the thin crust of ice just forming. It
meant a pleasant change in the labourers' diet, though the tl
smell was distinctly high. it
Large stretches of salt-covered boggy soil surrounding II
this lagoon and others of smaller size which we passed rit
farther on, attested the rapid shrinkage of these sorry /
remnants of the ' New Lake.' Most of them had corn- t
pletely dried up, like the large bare basin known to the 7
hunters as Kurban-kullu-köl, near which the ample growth u
of young reeds and tamarisk induced us to camp for the I
night. In the course of the day's tramp I had gathered i
interesting information from Mullah and Tokhta Akhun 1
about the notable change which has taken place in the i
physical aspects of this dismal ground since Hedin saw it. i
For three years after his first visit in i 90o the basins of the
Yangi-köl area were filled with fresh water from the Yangi- r,
su branch of the river. Since then no water had reached
G
them, and the lagoons had steadily shrunk, while what water was left turned more and more salt.
They knew the Yangi-köl depression since their youth I
from hunting expeditions after deer and the like, and could i
recall having seen its western edge where it was marked by I
rows of dead Toghraks. Their fathers had told them that
the basins had also formerly held water for certain periods. I
So the presence of thin Kumush, dead or living, over
extensive patches of ground seemed easy to account for 1
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