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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

mer residences" below Yaqinliq-köl, but shepherds used to wander even east of the
meridian of Yardang-bulaq. It is still too far for them to move to the delta, where
grazing, certainly, is good. If the present hydrographical conditions get stabilized
and remain so for sufficient length of time, the delta region will be resettled.
Should the river change again in our time the Lou-lan region will remain untouch-
ed, whereas the ground around Yaqinliq-köl and The Small River will preserve
traces of the present occupation to future archaeologists. This region around the
branching off of The Small River apparently offered about the same natural ad-
vantages to human settlers in ancient times as it does now; but ancient settlements
here, sometimes between 600 and 1.000, do not necessarily mean the existence of
settlements around Lou-lan at the same time, and nothing in the archaeological
collections indicates this.


E. FROM GRAVE 10 ALONG "THE SMALL RIVER" TO CEMETERY 5.

Between Grave 10 and Yaqinliq-köl we passed over eroded clay ground with low
yardangs, dry tamarisk cones, and, in the moist depressions near the river, fine
reeds. The route lay to the north of three small lakes in depressions at least 6 m.
deep, Pl. V b, their water being of extreme salinity. The largest was about 1500
m. long, and between 100 and 500 m. wide. Between the two first lakes the ground
had a thin covering of sand. In the same place there were dry poplars and low
remains of tamarisks; all the trees had died when quite young, and most of them
were still standing, Pl. II b. In one place a group of eight old, seemingly dead,
poplars had fresh green leafs.

Between the last salt lake and Yaqinliq-köl there is a riverlike depression running
about N—S, with small pools and reeds in the bottom, probably a bag-shaped ex-
tension of Qum-darya. One of our men called it Ara-tarim. No continuation of it
was found further south. A belt of slightly salt-encrusted sand where I noticed pot-
sherds of a neolithic character, separates this depression from Yaqinliq-köl. This
freshwater lake, which communicates with Qum-darya, extends in a N—S direct-
ion and is of very irregular shape on account of the numerous reed beds. Its
length is about 4 km., the width hardly exceeds 2 km.

Near the eastern shore there is a s a t m a or reed-hut, where Sait mollah and his
family has been spending the summer for the last four years. In winter they live at
the now dry part of the lower Tarim. Owing to the drying up of lower Tarim the
settlers there have had to abandon agriculture and turn exclusively to a pastoral
life. As we had occasion to observe, the neighbourhood of The Small River and
the southern shore of Qum-darya had good pastures, which were utilized by the
settlers along the lower Tarim. Even before the last river-displacement cattle- and

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