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

examine ruined sites near Ara-tam and Lapchuk was utilized by Lāl Singh for a rapid survey
of the southern slopes of the Karlik-tāgh, the easternmost portion of the Tien-shan range,
rising to snowy peaks between 13,000 and 14,000 feet. 50

The same plan was followed during the three weeks spent in the Turfān depression.
Surveys in, and S. of,
Turfān basin. While visits to its numerous and important ruins and excavations at an
unexplored desert site in its south-eastern corner kept me busy,
Lāl Singh rapidly surveyed the ground over which the principal
oases of the district are scattered. He also mapped portions of the southern slopes of the
snowy Tien-shan which overlooks this basin, so interesting to the geographer. 51 On
resuming my journey to Kara-shahr on December 1st, I sent Lāl Singh southwards
for independent survey work among the low desert ranges of the Kuruk-tāgh. He
accomplished his task successfully by first reaching Singer, the only permanently
occupied spot in a vast region of crumbling rock, bare gravel or salt-encrusted ground, and
thence carried his survey westwards through wholly unexplored hills to Korla at the
extreme north-east corner of the Tārim basin proper. 52 The local experience gained on
this journey proved of very great help to Lāl Singh on his far more extensive explor-
ations in the Kuruk-tāgh during 1914-15.

I myself after gaining the Kara-shahr valley by rapid marches on the caravan route
Explorations in
Kara-shahr region. from Turfān was busily occupied by excavations at the large site of
ruined Buddhist temples north of Shōrchuk. 53 Lāl Singh having
rejoined me by Christmas, we moved up the valley to the ruins of
Khōra whence we reached Korla by New Year's day, 1908. Reports received there about
sand-buried 'old towns' drew me then into the unsurveyed desert belt between the Inchike
and Charchak river beds to the south-west. 54 When our surveys there had proved these
reports to be based on mere folklore beliefs, current all along the Taklamakān, we took
separate routes to Kuchā. I struck across the scrubby desert to the north of those river
beds and after reaching Bugur followed the ancient road along the foot of the Tien-shan
westwards, while Lāl Singh mapped the unsurveyed course of the Inchike-daryā to
Shahyār, rejoining me at Kuchā. 55

After rapid visits to ancient remains on the outskirts of this large and important
Crossing of
Taklamakān. oasis I started towards the close of January, 1908, to the south of
the great desert for the exploration of ruined sites in the Taklamakān.
In order to reach them by a 'short cut' we followed the line indicated
by Dr. Hedin's pioneer journey of 1896 and leading from Shahyār due south through the
desert of large dunes to where the Keriya river loses itself in the sands. This desert tramp
of fifteen days from the Tārim to the point where we first reached the water, or rather ice,
of the dying Keriya river proved beset with serious difficulties and risks. 56 Yet it also was
attended by plenty of interesting topographical observations regarding the ancient dead
delta of the river; the high ridges of dunes (dawān) which here as in the Lop desert
usually keep parallel to ancient river beds, however long ago they may have been dried up
and smothered, and other typical features. 57 When at last we had reached the ever errant
river it was found to have formed a new bed at a considerable distance to the west of the
one where Hedin had seen it.

After fresh excavations at the Kara-dong site (Sheet No. 13. D. 3) we moved by a
Explorations in
desert E. of Khotan. new route to the desert belt north of the Domoko oasis. While I was
engaged there in exploring an extensive but much scattered series of
ruins, Lāl Singh carried out useful supplementary surveys both to the