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| 0251 |
Innermost Asia : vol.1 |
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Section III.—RESUMED LABOURS AT MĪRĀN
The close vicinity to Charkhlik of the two sites just described and the consequent facility of Start from
employing comparatively large numbers of diggers had allowed me to complete their clearing by Charkhlik.
the evening of January 14th, and I was glad of this. The state of unwonted animation in which
the little oasis was kept by requisitions for the troops marching on towards Keriya, by executions
of captured 'revolutionaries', &c., had only added to the difficulty of securing the transport and
supplies needed for my future desert explorations. I felt the strain of delay all the more because
I knew that out of the limited winter season which alone could be used for these explorations some
time would have to be devoted to supplementary work at the site of Mīrān before setting out for
the main tasks northward. Only a small portion of the additional camels and food-stuffs required
had been procured when this consideration of time obliged me to leave Charkhlik for Mīrān on
January 15th.
The last day of my stay had brought me the great satisfaction of seeing R. B. Lāl Singh Reunion
rejoin me in safety after fully four months of separation. Having left me in September beyond the with Lāl
Chichiklik pass, he had pushed on by forced marches through Yārkand and Khotan and had been Singh.
able by the middle of October, in accordance with my instructions, to start triangulation of the main
K'un-lun range from near Kapa (Map No. 23. b. 2), where our triangulation of 1906 had reached
its eastern end. The work had to be carried on at great elevations and, owing to the lateness of
the season and the total absence of local resources, was attended by very considerable hardships.
But my indefatigable assistant faced them with the zeal and endurance of which he had so often
given proof, and succeeded in extending his system of triangles, along with a careful plane-table
survey, along the northernmost range, for over five degrees of longitude eastward, before excessive
cold and snowfall obliged him to desist in the mountains to the north-east of Lop-nōr. A full
account of the survey work thus accomplished has been given in the Memoir on the maps embodying
the surveys of all my three journeys.¹
Not satisfied with having pushed this task as far as climatic conditions would permit, he con- Lāl Singh's
tinued his survey work with the plane-table along the route that leads towards Tun-huang through surveys
the inhospitable outer ranges of the Āltin-tāgh, snow-covered at the time. After reaching the towards
small oasis of Nan-hu, explored on my second journey, he struck through the desert north and Tun-huang.
returned to join me by the track leading along the southern shore of the dried-up ancient sea of
Lop. The difficulties of this track, fully described in Serindia² and the only one through the Lop
desert that now, as in Marco Polo's time, is practicable for caravans, were illustrated by the fact
that Lāl Singh's party found no ice yet formed at the most brackish of the springs along it, and
consequently suffered much from the want of drinkable water.³
The two marches that brought me to Mīrān led along the desert track already twice followed Return to
by us in 1906–7 and offered no opportunity for fresh observations. Nor had any change, in the Mīrān.
interval, come over the ruined site which extends to the east of the present course of the Mīrān
or Jahān-sai river, and which marks the position of the earliest capital of the 'Kingdom of Shan-
shan or Lou-lan', corresponding to the present Lop region. Its remains, as explored in 1907, and
the abundant finds of interest they had yielded, have been fully described in Serindia.⁴ There,
too, will be found discussed all questions relating to the role that the site of Mīrān has played in
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