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0167	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

d. 4). At a point called Kizil-ziārat (Map No. 8. c. 1) we passed a small area of cultivation recently
opened by a few Dolān families from the Ābād tract of Ak-su, and flocks of sheep belonging to
Ak-su ' Bais ' were found grazing even higher up the river.

Beyond Acha-dong living Toghraks became rare, and much dead forest and dead tamarisk-cones Journey to
(Fig. 84) showed that this area had for a long time past ceased to receive water from the river, though Ghōra-chöl.
a maze of dry beds evidently connected with it was passed here.¹ Towards the end of a thirty-one
miles' march over desolate waterless ground, living vegetation became again more frequent, until
at last at Palās-yepti we reached a marshy bed holding a sluggish stream. It was said to receive its
water from the Kara-köl branch of the dying Kāshgar river, and the survey effected a year and
a half later along the Ak-su–Tumshuk high road (Map No. 7. c. 4) has shown reason to believe that
this bed represents, indeed, the final termination of the Kāshgar-daryā.² Making thence our way
to the NE., past patches of abandoned cultivation and marshes, we reached on the morning of
November 9th the extensive but poorly cultivated village tract known as Ghōra-chöl. It forms the
southernmost portion of the Ābād canton belonging to the district of Ak-su (Map No. 12. A. 4)
and receives its irrigation from the Ak-su river. Settled by indolent Dolāns who have only in
modern times taken to agricultural life,³ the tract offered but scanty resources. My arrival not
having been foreseen and arranged for at district head-quarters, it was only with considerable
difficulty that I secured the half-dozen ponies that were needed to enable me to push up the Khotan
river by forced marches.

Fortunately a great change in the Khotan river's terminal course, that had taken place since New ter-
my passage in 1908, helped us considerably in shortening this journey. From a point known as minal course
Yalghuz-kum the river had turned off to the north-west into what before was probably an old dry of Khotan
bed of its delta (Map No. 13. A. B. 1). This opportune change allowed us on November 11th to river.
strike straight across to the SSE. of Ghōra-chöl and to reach the Khotan river end by a single
march, instead of having to make the great detour towards the old route at the junction of the
Ak-su and Yārkand rivers (Map No. 12. A. 4). Crossing the latter at Kochatlik, where we found
a ferry installed,⁴ we moved for about ten miles across a tamarisk-covered steppe. There numerous
dry beds lined with living Toghraks clearly showed by their direction that they had once carried
water derived from the Yārkand river. Some six miles beyond we passed deep ' Yārs ' recently
cut by the Khotan river floods, and then arrived at the new bed, nearly a mile wide but quite dry.
Water, however, was easily found, as elsewhere along the lower Khotan river, by digging a well
under the steep bank of the bed. Next day a march of some twenty-eight miles along the new
river-bed, itself repeatedly split up into several branches in true delta fashion, brought us to the
point known as Yalghuz-kum, where it diverged from the old bed as surveyed in 1908 (Map No.
13. B. 1). Most of the ground traversed by the new river-bed showed but scanty scrub, and beds
of reeds had begun to grow up only near its head. This confirmed the experience gained in 1908

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