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Innermost Asia : vol.2 |
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that once on the ground I might be allowed by the Russian authorities to extend my visit farther
south towards the upper course of the Oxus. But knowing that access to these parts had not been
previously granted to British travellers I had not specifically included them in my programme.
More than a year before my return to Kāshgar I had, while in Kansu, requested the Foreign
Department of the Indian Government to secure for me the special permission of the Russian
Government to travel through Russian Turkestān. On April 14th, 1915, I learned to my great
relief from the Indian Foreign Department that the requisite permission had been secured through
H.B.M.'s Embassy at Petrograd. But on arriving at Kāshgar I found that Prince Mestchersky,
the Russian Consul-General, had received no information on the subject. By the third week of
June, as a result of telegraphic application made direct to H.B.M.'s Ambassador, he received
instructions to permit me to enter Russian territory, but without any indication of the route I might
be allowed to follow. Fortunately Prince Mestchersky, an enlightened official, proved ready to
further my scientific aims, and on the strength of a telegram from Sir George Buchanan received
by myself at the close of June reporting the approval of my tour by the Russian Foreign Office,
issued a special permit enabling me to visit the Pāmīrs and all tracts along the Oxus. He in addition
kindly provided me with most useful recommendations to the various Russian officers holding
political charge in that region. For all this I am anxious to record here my deep sense of gratitude
to Prince Mestchersky.
During my stay at Kāshgar I was re-joined by the two Surveyors whom, since leaving Korla,
I had detailed on routes separate from my own. R. B. Lāl Singh had carried his plane-table work
as close to the crest of the T'ien-shan range as the season and transport conditions would permit.
From Ak-su onwards I had been able to arrange for his proceeding by a new route which led him
over ground almost wholly unsurveyed, through the utterly arid hill ranges of the outermost
T'ien-shan east and west of the small oasis of Kelpin.² Two weeks later Muḥammad Yāqūb also
arrived safely. During a trying journey of over two months he had carried his plane-table work,
somewhat rough as usual, along the left bank of the Tārim from near the Konche-daryā to above
Yārkand. Our camels which came with him had suffered a good deal from the heat of the season
and from difficulties of the ground caused by the spring inundations along the riverine belt. Yet
in spite of this and the hardships undergone by them during close on two years' work, mostly in
desert regions, I was able subsequently to dispose of them at Yārkand with practically no loss to the
Indian Government.
On the 6th of July I at last found it possible to leave Kāshgar, after completing all arrange-
ments for the safe passage of the eighty heavy camel-loads of antiques to India. But the summer
floods in the K'un-lun valleys, due to the melting glaciers, would not as yet allow of the departure
of this valuable convoy towards the Kara-koram passes. I was accordingly able to let Lāl Singh,
to whose care I had to entrust it, set out meanwhile with me for a survey of the high snowy mountain
chain which continues the Muz-tāgh-atā range to the head-waters of the Kāshgar river south-east of
the Alai. Our route was the same as far as the prosperous oasis of Opal, and on the way to it, some
miles beyond the suburbs of Kāshgar, the faithful Chiang Ssŭ-yeh (Fig. 355) awaited me to bid me
farewell in time-honoured Chinese fashion. The reunion at his Ho-nan home or in Kashmīr that
we both fondly hoped for was not to be granted by Fate ; for in the spring of 1922 the best scholar
who ever helped me in Asia passed away at his post in Kāshgar.
Lāl Singh proceeded from Opal westwards to the head-waters of the Kizil-daryā or Kāshgar
river. Thence he made his way round the northern end of the above-mentioned snowy range
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697
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