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| 0059 |
Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 |
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in height, and then the river spreads broadcast over the surface forming wide lagoons
or marshes, belted by reeds and tamarisk brushwood, till the waters again find a defined
channel between banks. And this occurs at intervals over an extent of some three hundred
miles beyond which the river flows in a clear channel five days' journey in length to the Lake
Lob.
The greatest portion of this desert tract is an unmitigated waste with a deep coating of
loose pulverulent salines on which only the wild camel finds a footing. Horses cannot traverse
it owing to their sinking knee-deep in the soft soil; whilst to man the dust raised proves
suffocating, and the glare from the snow white salts blinding.
The only parts that are inhabited are the immediate banks of the Tárim River, and the
angles of junction formed by its tributaries from Kúchá and Karáshahr. The latter is a
considerable river called Káidú. It drains the Yuldúz valley and at Karáshahr falls into the
Lake Baghrách—the Bostáng of the maps. From this it issues to the south and, winding
round the west of the Kúrugh Tágh sand hills which separate its lake from that of Lob,
at seven days' journey from the city joins the Tárim. At its point of junction a road goes across
the desert to Khutan, but to the east of it are the lagoons and marshes abovementioned.
For two or three hundred miles on this part of its course the Tárim River is the seat of some
primitive tribes who dwell in reed huts on its banks and in boats upon its stream. They will
be described hereafter under the head of inhabitants of the country.
It may be here noted as a remarkable object on this desert tract that on the road to
Khutan south of this peopled district of Lob is the site of an ancient city of that name now
buried in sand; and at three days' journey further to the south are the ruins of Katak, another
ancient city of this region, which has been overwhelmed by the shifting sands.
During our stay in the country we had an opportunity of witnessing the manner in
which such a catastrophe is brought about. Whilst the embassy was halted at Yangi Hissar
we paid a visit to the shrine of Ordám Pádshah in the Kúm Shahídán or "Martyrs' Sands"
on the verge of the desert, and there saw some buildings actually undergoing the process of
submergence by the shifting sands.
It is effected in this wise. During the spring and summer months a north or north-west
wind prevails. It blows with considerable force and persistence for many days consecutively.
As it sweeps over the plain it raises the impalpable dust on its surface, and obscures the air by
a dense haze resembling in darkness a November fog in London; but it drives the heavier
particles of sand before it, and on the subsidence of the wind they are left on the plain in the
form of ripples like those on a sandy beach washed by an ebbing current.
In process of time under the continued action of this wind the ripples grow in size, and
at the same time progress gradually over the plain in the direction of the wind. As they
grow in size the more defined and uniform becomes their shape, and the more exact their
direction with that of the wind.
At Kúm Shahídán these moving sands presented a most remarkable uniformity in their
direction and in the regularity of their wave lines. The wave lines were formed by a series
of three to six or more semilunes ranged over the plain in rows one behind the other in the
direction whence the wind blew, that is, to the north or north-west.
All the semilunes in every series and in all the rows exactly resembled each other in every
particular except dimensions, and all faced the direction to which the wind blew, that is to
the south or south-east.
Each semilune towards the north or north-west sloped up gently from the plain, and
reached its greatest height—from twelve to sixty or eighty feet—in the centre of the curve which
faced to the south or south-east. From this centre the loose sand sloped down gently along
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712
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714
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