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

need of special explanation. ¹ Others which had to be specially introduced for the marking
of ancient sites, ruins and other objects of antiquarian interest, are sufficiently explained in the
table of symbols reproduced at the foot of each sheet.
No exact chronological limits can be fixed for the 'antiquity' which the use of red
colour indicates in the case of these symbols; but generally it may be
Ancient remains
shown in red. considered as defining those objects which have ceased for a considerable
time past to serve their original purpose.
In the case of symbols for inhabited sites, no attempt at systematic differentiation
according to importance could be made. Large towns, however, have
Symbols for inhabited
sites. been distinguished by black outlines approximately corresponding to
the extent of ground they cover, and among other settlements the more
populous are made recognizable by slightly enlarged solid blocks. The market-towns of
village tracts in the Tarim basin are easily recognized by the addition of -bāzār (often coupled
with a week-day) to the name of the tract. In Kan-su where practically all villages and
hamlets are walled, the use of the fort symbol has been restricted to small towns to avoid
over-crowding. Throughout the maps a small open square has been used to distinguish
temporarily occupied structures such as roadside stations (langar), shepherds' huts (öshil), and
the like, from permanent habitations.
As in the 1/Million sheets of the Survey of India, no distinction has been made
between different classes of roads, except that the few main lines of
Representation of
'roads'. traffic connecting the principal oases and usually marked by the Chinese
administration with 'mile-stones', recte mud towers, at distances of 10 li
(approximately 2 miles) have been shown with double lines in red. Throughout the regions
represented, 'roads' are only natural tracks, practicable for camels everywhere in the plains
and for carts also, except where the stretches of drift-sand to be crossed are extensive, as is
the case all the way between Khotan and Tun-huang.
In regions where desert areas vastly predominate, some difficulty is naturally experien-
ced as to which tracks can reasonably be marked as 'roads and paths'.
Indication of tracks. Tracks such as those which traverse the western Kuruk-tāgh or lead
along the foot of the easternmost K'un-lun, though well-known to more
venturesome people in the nearest small settlements, may remain unused for many months, or
even years. The principle I have endeavoured to observe was to mark with the red line of
'road or path' only those tracks which an experienced traveller in possession of the map might
with due care be able to follow unguided. It goes without saying that of such tracks, too,
many are liable to be lost in places when unfavourable atmospheric conditions obscure
landmarks, etc.
Within the oases, on the other hand, well-trodden tracks between villages and hamlets
are so numerous that it would be impossible to show them all on the scale of our maps.
Hence within cultivated ground it has often been found necessary for the sake of clearness to
show only the routes followed, without marking the roads along which they led. ²
Special care has been taken to mark all routes along which survey work was done, by
rows of small crosses, the colours black, blue and red being used to
Marking of surveyed
routes. distinguish routes followed on the first, second and third expedition
respectively. Where the same route was surveyed on more than one
journey, crosses of corresponding colours have been used alternately. The successive route
stages on each journey have been shown by the insertion of 'camp numbers' in the same
distinctive colours as the routes to which they refer; a special camp symbol was added
where the stage lay at a spot away from any habitation. The numerical order of camps
makes it possible to follow the direction in which the survey on each route proceeded. On
the first and second expeditions, routes surveyed by myself only are recognizable by 'camp