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

north and south of the line of oases stretching westwards to Khotan. 58 After more
archaeological labours at sites in the desert fringing the Khotan oasis to the north and
north-west, 59 we started early in April for Ak-su by the route which leads through the
heart of the Taklamakān along the united bed of the Yurung-kāsh and Kara-kāsh rivers,
then practically dry.
On this journey I was able to explore interesting ancient remains on the curious
desert hill of Mazār-tāgh which juts out to the left bank of the Khotan
Hill range of Mazār-
tāgh. river as the last offshoot of a low and now almost completely eroded
range coming from the north-west. A reconnaissance made by the sur-
veyor showed that this range is still traceable amidst high dunes for a distance of at least
twenty miles. 60 Its exploration beyond was impossible at that season of increasing heat and
sand-storms.
We descended the Khotan river bed to the neighbourhood of its junction with the
Tārim which we crossed. 61 By the left bank of the Ak-su river we
Journey to Ak-su. reached the town of that name, the present Chinese headquarters for the
eastern portion of the Tārim basin, early in May. There we separated
for nearly three months. I myself travelled up the Uch-Turfān valley and crossed a barren
and very rugged outer range of the T'ien-shan, previously unsurveyed, to the little-known
oasis of Kelpin. 62
Moving southwards I traced remains of ancient settlements in the desert between
the arid outer hills of Kelpin and the terminal course of the Kāshgar
Return to Khotan viâ river, before reaching the Ak-su--Kāshgar highway near the ruined sites
Yārkand. of Tumshuk. 63 A series of low parallel hill ranges in the unsurveyed
desert belt to the north-east of Marāl-bāshī offered an opportunity for interesting topo-
graphical work. Then the increasing heat and the call of many heavy tasks obliged me
to return to my base at Khotan. Proceeding by rapid marches along the left bank of the
Yārkand river I carried my plane-table traverse to Yārkand, 64 whence the caravan route
already followed in 1900 brought me back to Khotan by June 9th.
Here I was detained by exacting labours needed for the safe packing of my large
collection of antiques and by the manifold preparations for the planned
Lāl Singh's surveys
along T'ien-shan and in explorations in the high K'un-lun to the south. The halt fortunately
W. K'un-lun. allowed me to give Lāl Singh adequate time for independent survey
work, and with his unfailing energy he used it to the best advantage. Injury to a level
of the theodolite prevented, it is true, the triangulation I had wished him to carry from
Ak-su to Khotan. Nevertheless he effected very useful plane-table surveys along the main
T'ien-shan range from the valley below the Muz-art pass to the watershed north of Kāshgar. 65
Descending a second time to Kāshgar, he travelled to Gūma through the districts of Yārkand
and Karghalik by a route different from the high-roads already surveyed. 66 He then
succeeded in mapping, as directed, the last portions of terra incognita on the northern slopes
of the K'un-lun between the Kiliān valley and the middle Kara-kāsh river above Pujiya in the
lower Khotan hills. In addition he connected his survey with Rām Singh's work in 1906
by crossing the Sanju-dawān and ascending the Kara-kāsh river as far as Kiliān-kurghān. 47