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

Before, however, setting out for this it was imperative to give our hard-tried camels
Move to Āltmish-bulak a brief rest with water and grazing at the salt springs of Āltmish-bulak.
salt springs. Lāl Singh had just safely arrived at the Lou-lan site after his survey
of the Kuruk-daryā, and with him I proceeded by a new route to
those springs at the foot of the Kuruk-tāgh northward, while labourers and antiques were
sent back to our depot at Mirān. ²⁴ After replenishing our ice-supply and taking an indispens-
able store of fuel we left Āltmish-bulak on February 25 for our respective tasks. Lāl Singh
was to survey the extreme north-eastern extension of the great salt-encrusted basin once
filled by the Lop sea and the southernmost hill ranges of the Kuruk-tāgh overlooking them.
I myself wished to trace the ancient Chinese route from the eastern edge of the once habit-
able Lou-lan area right through to the point where it was likely to have diverged from the
line still followed by the desert track from Tun-huang along the southern shore of the
dried-up sea.

Search for ancient It was a task of special geographical and historical interest but beset also by serious
Chinese route from physical difficulties and risks; for on the ground to be crossed no water
Lou-lan to Tun-huang. could be expected—over most of it not even fuel—before striking the
Tun-huang caravan track near the eastern extremity of the ancient sea
bed, a matter of some ten days of hard marching. Apart from the serious risk of physical
obstacles which would cause delay and exhaust our hard-tried camels, there was the problem of
striking the line of the ancient route and of tracking it through a wilderness devoid of all
resources since the dawn of historical times. I have related elsewhere how hints derived from
topographical and archæological observations, combined with fortunate finds of relics left
behind by the ancient traffic of centuries, helped to guide me and to solve the problem, ²⁵ Here
the briefest explanation of the route, as now shown on the map, will suffice.

After regaining across difficult wind-eroded ground the vicinity of the terminal point
d'appui above mentioned at Camp c, we moved for two long marches to
Crossing of salt-encrust- the north-east until we struck the belt of salt-encrusted erosion terraces
ed Lop sea bed. which the early Chinese accounts of this dreaded 'northern road' knew
as the 'White Dragon Mounds'. ²⁶ Then on a very trying march we crossed to the south-east
the dried-up sea-bottom with its crumpled-up crust of hard salt, fortunately at the very point
where it was narrowest. Thence continuing over easier ground to the south along the ancient
sea shore, we reached three days later its extreme eastern extension in the shape of a great bay
overlooked from the north by a low offshoot of the southernmost Kuruk-tāgh.

For two more days we skirted this bay eastwards under the steep cliffs of its shoreline,
and then crossed its salt-encrusted expanse, here still showing patches
Tun-huang caravan of actual salt bog. After a long day's march on March 6 we finally
track gained. reached the wells of Kum-kuduk, on the Tun-huang caravan track. ²⁷
Here I found Lāl Singh just arrived after having duly surveyed the wide northernmost
bight of the dried-up sea and of the straggling low ranges further to the east. In conjunc-
tion with the work pluckily done a year later by Afrāz-gul along the western shore our
'circumnavigation' of the ancient Lop sea was thus successfully achieved.

After the timely arrival of our heavy baggage from Mirān a day later, we were able
to turn once more northwards across the eastern bay and in separate
Desert valley E. of parties to survey in detail the ground close to the foot of the Kuruk-
Lop sea basin. tāgh where the early Chinese route to Lou-lan had passed. At Besh-
toghrak, near the eastern end of the great desert valley leading down towards the Lop sea
basin, I picked up Surveyor Muhammad Yakūb who had meanwhile carried with praise-
worthy perseverance a line of levels, carefully observed with a Zeiss instrument, all the way
up from the bottom of the bay north of Kum-kuduk to the curious Mesa-filled basin east of