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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Remains of abandoned
oases.

I have also explained the causes which render such 'terminal oases'
particularly liable to changes in position and extent during different
periods. ¹⁰ Evidence of these changes survives in the remains of those
numerous ancient settlements abandoned to the desert which my explorations have enabled
me to trace. The fact of the most important among them being found far to the north of
the present line of 'terminal oases' furnishes definite proof of the progress of desiccation in
this region within historical times. ¹¹ Thus the detailed surveys attending those explorations
may claim special interest in connection with a much-discussed geographical question.


Section IV.—THE TERMINAL DEPRESSION OF LOF AND THE
TURFĀN BASIN.


The last of the regions comprised within the Tārim basin is the terminal depression
of Lop. The smallest in extent and particularly well defined, it exhibits
Extent of Lop
depression.
a variety of interesting geographical features. It may be appropriately
described as containing the terminal course of the Tārim with its fringe
of lagoons, the marshes in which its waters are finally lost, and the great salt-encrusted bed
of the dried-up Lop sea beyond them, together with the wastes of gravel, drift-sand and
wind-eroded clay which surround it. In accordance with the traditional application of the
name Lop, itself of very ancient origin, ¹ we must include in this region also the dune-covered
area to the east of the Tārim's final course, already referred to as an outlier of the Takla-
makān, as well as the area, mostly scrubby desert or gravel 'Sai', which extends southwards
of the last sections of the Charchan river and the Tārim to the foot of the mountains.
Here the streams of Vāsh-shahri, Charkhlik and Mirān have in recent years rendered
it possible for a few small settlements to resume cultivation near ancient
Population of Lop
area.
sites abandoned for centuries. ² Apart from the people in these tiny
oases and the survivors of the scanty nomadic population of Lopliks
('Lop people') fishing and hunting along the terminal Tārim, the whole region is now wholly
uninhabited. The same applies also to the surrounding areas: in the west the Taklamakān;
in the north the barren hills of the Kuruk-tāgh; in the east the terminal basin of the Su-lo-
ho, and in the south the arid ranges of the Altin-tāgh, an eastern extension of the K'un-lun.
In spite of its desolate character, considerable interest, historical and geographical,
attaches to the Lop region. This explains the special efforts devoted to
Prehistoric sea bed.
its survey both on my second and third expeditions, notwithstanding
the great physical difficulties besetting topographical work in a region
which for the most part is devoid of drinkable water. In the great salt-encrusted bed, proved
by our surveys to extend for fully 170 miles from south-west to north-east with a maximum
width of some 80 miles, we have a visible remnant of that prehistoric salt sea which was fed
by the drainage of the Tārim basin during periods when the climate of Central Asia was
moister.
A variety of observations justify the assumption that this dried-up terminal basin,
still showing salt bogs in places, even now periodically receives water
Marshes of Lop-nōr.
at its south-west end, either by inundation or percolation, from the
adjoining Kara-koshun marshes of the Tārim. ³ The fact that these
marshes of 'Lop-nōr'—to use the Mongol designation which from modern Chinese maps and