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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

NOTES ON SHEET No. 17 (KUCHÂ)

The surveys recorded in this sheet were
made in 1908 and 1915. The compara-
tively close net of routes around Kuchâ
dates mainly from the spring of the latter
year when archæological interests kept me at
work for several weeks in the vicinity of
that great, and since early times important,
oasis. While Miân Afrâz-gul assisted me
in plane-table work here, R. B. Lâl Singh
surveyed the outer slopes of the T'ien-shan
northward. The routes southwards to
Shahyâr and beyond were mapped on the
occasion of our joint crossing of the Takla-
makân in January-February, 1908.

For the town of Kuchâ the astronomi-
cal latitude agreed closely with that of Mr.
Clementi. Its longitude was determined by
taking the mean of the values interpolated
between the accepted positions of Kâshgar
and Korla and between Korla and Tengri-
khân, respectively. This longitude (82° 53′
30″) was found to agree very closely with
that obtained by plotting the route from the
side of Keriya river via Peres and Shahyâr
and was therefore accepted, ¹² though differ-
ing some 15 minutes from that shown in
Mr. Clementi's list. In addition to the
latitudes recorded below, those observed by
Dr. Hedin along the Târim river and by
Mr. Clementi on the main road were used.

A brief descriptive account of the routes
followed by me in 1908 is to be found in
Desert Cathay, ii. pp. 375 sqq. Points
connected with the historical topography of
the riverine tract between the Muz-art
(Inchike) and Târim rivers have been dis-
cussed in Serindia, iii. pp. 1236 sq. A
record of the observations collected in 1915
concerning the present and ancient topo-
graphy of the Kuchâ oasis and its vicinity
must be reserved for the report on my third
expedition.

The area represented in this sheet, apart
from the portion of the subsidiary basin of
Baï occupying its north-western corner, falls
into three distinct zones. In the north, at the
foot of the outermost spurs of the T'ien-shan,

Astronomically observed latitudes.
1906-08. Kuchâ City, Camp 309 (near Ya-mên; B. 1) ... 41° 42′ 58″
1913-15. Ishtala, Camp 315 (hamlet near centre of cultivation; C. 1) ... 41° 51′ 18′

we have the wide alluvial fan which the
Muz-art and Kuchâ rivers form at their
debouchure and which is occupied by the
great oasis of Kuchâ. That its cultivation
extended within historical times much further
into the reed- and scrub-covered belt surround-
ing it on the east, south and west, is clearly
demonstrated by the numerous ruined sites
shown on the map (A-D.2).

In its ample irrigation resources, due to
two rivers issuing near to each other from
the foothills, as also in various other aspects,
Kuchâ forms a curiously close pendant to the
Khotan oasis in the south. If desiccation
has not left here quite so striking evidence of
its progress in the shape of sand-buried
ruins, wind-eroded 'Tatis', etc., the explana-
tion is easily furnished by the broad riverine
belt of the Târim which adjoins in the
south.

This second zone with its jungle and
inundation tracts effectively protects the
irrigable area from encroachment by the
drift-sands of the Taklamakân. The latter
forms the third zone and stretches its dune-
covered wastes away to the thin string of
oases lining the extreme edge of the glacis
of the K'un-lun on the other side of the
Târim Basin. In the strip of Taklamakân
ground shown by the southern portion of the
sheet (A,B.4), the change in the direction
of the high dune ridges or 'Dawâns' may be
specially noted. While in the north they
run from east to west parallel to the Târim,
further south they bear approximately from
N.N.E. to S.S.W., corresponding to the
direction of the terminal course of the Keriya
river where it dies away in the sands.

Corrections. B. 1. Cliffs should be
shown above Duldul-okur close to the right
bank of the Muz-art R., the river gorge being
practically impassable from below Kizil-
mingoi down to the caves of Ming-oi, above
Kum-tura.

The name Su-bâshi at the debouchure of
the Kuchâ river should be in red, being
applied to the ruins on both banks.