National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

undertaking is contained in his Serindia, in four volumes, with a fifth containing

his 96 maps. Only a few of the many sites examined need be mentioned here.

Before starting for the desert he made a survey up the Nissa valley of the great

glaciers that feed the head-waters of the Yurung-kásh river. This is where, two

years later, his right foot became frost-bitten, causing the loss of the toes. Having

completed the Nissa valley survey he started for the desert site of Niya, pre-

viously explored with such great results in 1901. After further discoveries there

he travelled north-east to the oasis of Charkhlik in the region of Lop. Lop (or

Lou-lan or Shan-shan) comprised, in Han times, the whole of the depression

between the Kuruk-tágh and Altin-tágh with Charkhlik and Mirán as administra-

tive centres. About fifty miles north-east of Charkhlik at the desolate ancient site

of Mirán, he recovered the wall paintings shown on plates r to iii, and photo-

graphed others which he found it impracticable to remove at that time. The

masses of important manuscripts, and other evidences of Tibetan occupation

found in the ruins of an ancient fort nearby, are described in Serindia and Innermost

Asia. From Charkhlik, the next site to be visited was Lou-lan in the Lop desert,

where carved architectural woodwork, wooden writing tablets bearing Kharosthi

script, Han coins, and many miscellaneous relics were found among the remains

of ruined dwellings. Stone Age and Chalcolithic arrowheads, frequently picked

up during the progress across the desert, afforded evidence of the use of the track

from remote times. He also identified the line of the ancient Chinese wall, built

to protect the trade routes that extended westward from the `Jade Gate', its great

age proved by the finding in one of the towers or block-houses built along the

wall Chinese documents on wood bearing dates equivalent to the first century A.D.

It is an attractive story, recorded in Serindia, but too long to recite here.

The third of Stein's Central Asian expeditions started from Srinagar on 31

July 1913. The route taken was different from those of his former journeys, pass-

ing through the recently formed kingdom of Darél, never before visited by a

European, through Yásin, and by way of the Darkót Pass,15,250 feet, the Tágh-

dumbásh Pamir, the valley of Tásh-kurghán, and the Kara-tásh river gorges to

Káshgar. The ever-hospitable house of Sir George Macartney, British Consul-

General, again afforded him a welcome base at which to make the necessary

preparations for the forthcoming desert journey. A Chinese secretary was engaged

and at the end of a fortnight the expedition resumed its progress. Skirting the foot

of the Tien-shan range the Taklamakán desert was entered at its eastern end,

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