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| 0325 |
Innermost Asia : vol.2 |
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The passage of the much-decayed spurs, with their extensive glacis of gravel, which adjoin
to the south-west is equally easy, and a long descent, not altogether without water, brings
the traveller to the village of Kara-yulghun, the easternmost of the small oases belonging to the
district of Ak-su.³ Thence both the ' Old ' and the ' New Town ' of Ak-su can be reached by two
easy marches (Map No. 12. A, B. 2). Cultivation of most of the ground traversed is rendered possible
by an adequate supply of water from the branching beds of streams fed by the snows of the T'ien-
shan, south of the Tengri-khān massif.
I have already discussed in Serindia the brief notices that Chinese historical records devote Chinese
to the territory of the present Ak-su, mentioned in the Han Annals and the Wei lio under the name notices
of Ku-mo 姑墨 and in the T'ang Annals and other later texts under diverse designations, as of Ak-su.
Po-huan 撥換, Wei-jung 威 戎, &c.⁴ I have noted in the same work the observations that
I was able to make on the geographical factors determining the political and commercial importance
of Ak-su, and as to the probable reasons for the inadequate use, in modern times, of the abundant
resources for irrigation afforded by its rivers.
The stay which the very attentive reception accorded to me by Mr. Chu Jui-ch'ih 朱瑞坰, Survey
the Tao-t'ai of Ak-su and an old acquaintance, obliged me to make on May 18th–19th at the ' Old ' work by
and the ' New Town ', respectively, gave me a fortunate opportunity of meeting Lāl Singh again, Lal Singh.
and arranging for further survey work by him. Since leaving Kuchā he had moved, over little-
known ground, along the foot of the T'ien-shan to the point where the Muz-art-daryā debouches
from the mountains.⁵ From there, notwithstanding the early season, he had carried his plane-
table survey up the still snow-covered head-waters of the river, and ascended the glacier over which
the route towards Ili crosses the watershed east of the great massif crowned by the Tengri-khān
peak, 23,600 feet above sea-level (Map No. 11. A. 4). The local help and guidance which the
obliging Tao-t'ai readily promised now made it possible for me to let the Surveyor proceed to
Kāshgar by a new route. It led him, for the most part, between and along those utterly barren
hill ranges of the outermost T'ien-shan stretching to the north-east and south-west of the small
oasis of Kelpin, which I reached in 1908 from the north.⁶ Lāl Singh was thus able to extend our
surveys over a considerable area which had previously remained wholly unexplored,⁷ before he
rejoined me at Kāshgar, in the first week of June, via Kalta-yailak.
The line followed by the direct route from Ak-su to Marāl-bāshi must at all times have been Route from
determined, as it now is, mainly by the places where travellers could secure water for themselves Ak-su to
and their transport animals ; for the route lies throughout in the flat alluvial plain between the Marāl-
Yārkand river to the south and the outermost chain of the T'ien-shan to the north. In ground of bāshi.
this description, changes within historical times in the volume or the direction of the surface drainage
brought by rivers are bound to leave definite marks. Hence however imperfect the observations
which my rapid journey allowed me to make, I will briefly record them here, if only for the interest
of comparing them with corresponding observations in other parts of the Tārim basin. Before
mentioning the indications of such changes, I will give a succinct account of the present route,
which we covered in six rapid marches, amounting to a total estimated distance of nearly 150
miles.
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457
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