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CHAP. XXXIX. p. 197.   GREAT DESERT.   49

first part of his chapter records. Anticipating my subsequent

observations, I may state here at once that Marco's estimate of

the distance and the number of marches on this desert crossing

proved perfectly correct. For the route from Charklik, his

` town of Lop,' to the ` City of Sachiu,' i.e. Sha-chou or Tun-

huang, our plane-table survey, checked by cyclometer readings,

showed an aggregate marching distance of close on 380 miles."

XXXIX., p. 196.

OF THE CITY OF LOP AND THE GREAT DESERT.

" In the hope of contributing something toward the solution

of these questions [contradictory statements of Prjevalsky,

Richthofen, and Sven Hedin]," writes Huntington, " I planned

to travel completely around the unexplored part of the ancient

lake, crossing the Lop desert in its widest part. As a result of

the journey, I became convinced that two thousand years ago

the lake was of great size, covering both the ancient and the

modern locations ; then it contracted, and occupied only the site

shown on the Chinese maps ; again, in the Middle Ages, it

expanded ; and at present it has contracted and occupies the

modern site.

Now, as in Marco Polo's days, the traveller must equip

his caravan for the desert at Charklik, also known as Lop, two

days' journey south-west of the lake." (Ellsworth HUNTINGTON,

The Pulse of Asia, pp. 240-1.) XXXIX., pp. 197, 20I~,

NOISES IN THE GREAT DESERT.

As an answer to a paper by C. TOMLINSON, in Nature,

Nov. 28, 1895, p. 78, we find in the same periodical, April 30,

1896, LIII., p. 605, the following note by KUMAGUSU MINAKATA :

" The following passage in a Chinese itinerary of Central Asia

Chun Yuen's Si yih-kien-wan-luh, 1777 (British Museum,

No. 15271, b. 14), tom. VII., fol. 13 b. appears to describe the icy

sounds similar to what Ma or Head observed in North America

(see supra, ibid., p. 78).

" Muh-süh-urh-tah-fan ( = Muzart), that is Ice Mountain

[Snowy according to Prjevalsky], is situated between Ili and

Ushi. . . . In case that one happens to be travelling there close to

sunset, he should choose a rock of moderate thickness and lay

down on it. In solitary night then, he would hear the sounds,

now like those of gongs and bells, and now like those of strings