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

obstruction and half filled the court area with the loose sand of its substance ; whilst the other
two not so obstructed continued their steady advance in unbroken form by the side of the
tenement.

In illustration of the carelessness with which we found this accustomed danger treated
it is worthy of note that we saw the house thus threatened with submergence actually occupied
by its tenants, although the sands had approached to within a few feet of its verandah. Doubt-
less had the sand dune met the back of the house and broken over its roof, instead of over its
front court wall, the occupants would have been entombed in their dwelling, as were those of
Katak, according to the veracious statements of the unsophisticated shepherds of the country.

These wanderers about Katak further state that the houses, &c., of the buried city which
they have seen reappear from under the sand are no longer to be found when they again visit
the place in their migrations, though their position is recognized by the minaret tops project-
ing from the fresh sands under which they have passed. This, too, is easily to be understood
if we remember that the sand travels in wave lines the rows of which follow each other at
intervals of twenty or thirty to a hundred yards.

The first line will break over an obstructing house and bury it ; but, the wind continuing, its
loose particles are driven on and resume their original form on the clear ground beyond ; whilst
the submerged house reappears from under the advancing wave till it is again buried by the
one next following it ; and so on with the successive rows until the whole of the moving sands
have passed on beyond its site.

Consequently, in process of time, provided the sands be limited in extent, the buried cities
of Lob and Katak ought to reappear in the world much in form of their first state when
submerged some four hundred years ago. With the requisite data an interesting calculation
could be made as to the period when this resurrection might be expected to occur. Unfortu-
nately for this we have no knowledge of the extent of the moving sands in their vicinity.
Those of Kúm Shahidán extend across the plain in an unbroken series of wave lines for about
fifteen miles from east and north-east to west and south-west and have a width of about eight
miles more or less from north and north-west to south and south-east from Ordám Pádshah
towards Yángí Hissár ; and within these limits they cover an area of about a hundred and
twenty square miles. Till all this has moved on to the east of the site of Ordám Pádshah the
shrine is not free from the risk of submergence—the fate that has long since overtaken
the city of that name which is said to have been buried eight hundred years ago ; though we
could get no history of the occurrence. Whilst on the spot we could find no traces of this
buried city, but as the sands extend many miles eastward of the shrine on to the desert they
may be there, inasmuch as we were assured there was such a buried city albeit none of our
informants could indicate the site.

Swamp.—This natural division of the country with the next that is to be described
forms one of the characteristic features of the general aspect of the preceding division
or desert tract, and taken as a whole constitutes no small portion of its general area.

The swamp or marsh land is principally concentrated on the course of the Tárim River
in the eastern part of its course before it joins Lake Lob. Little is known regarding this
tract, owing to its inaccessibility, beyond that it extends over two or three hundred miles of
country from west to east, and that the Tárim River passes through it to Lake Lob. It is
described as a vast expanse of impenetrable reeds fringed by a forest belt of poplar and
tamarisk trees. The people of Lob are said to move about the swamps in their boats, and
find a way through them in five days to the lake. They are said to yield great abundance of
fish, on which the people mainly subsist, and to swarm with water-fowl of all sorts, as well as
musquitoes and venemous gnats, together with other horrid insects and snakes. The white
swan and a species of otter are also found here, and their skins are articles of barter between
the Lob people and the traders of Kúché and Karáshahr. A certain number of otter skins also
form part of the annual tribute paid by these people to Káshghar.

There is no cultivation here nor any fixed settlement. The people live in transportable
reed-frame huts or in boats, and possess great herds of horned cattle. The produce of these