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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

by the Tang-ho for irrigation on its alluvial
fan accounts for the fertile oasis of Tun-
huang. The local resources of this western-
most outpost of China proper were of special
importance during the early period when the
Lop desert route, protected in part by the
Tun-huang limes, served as the chief line of
traffic into Central Asia. East of Tun-huang
the flat bottom of the Su-lo-ho valley
narrows, and at the starting point of the
Hāmi road it is occupied for the most part
by the cultivation of An-hsi, the ancient
Kua-chou. The facilities here for irrigation
by the Su-lo-ho are limited, and thus are
also the extent and economic importance of
the oasis.
Finally in the south extend the utterly
barren foothills of the Nan-shan. The
Astronomically observed latitudes.
1906-08. Tun-huang town, Camp 159 (garden about 1 mile S. of South
gate; B. 4) ... ... ... 40° 8′ 9″
Ruined watch-tower, T. XXVIII, ancient Limes, Camp 164 (C. 4) ... 40° 25′ 45″
Ch'ien-fo-tung, Camp 178 (monks' quarters near S. end of caves;
see Serindia, iii. Plan 42; B. 4) ... ... ... 40° 2′ 37″
Kua-chou-k'ou, Camp 181 (near station; D. 4) ... ... 40° 22′ 7″
An-hsi, Camp 182 (house near temple circ. 1 mile S.W. of West
gate; D. 3) ... ... ... ... ... 40° 31′ 38″
Ma-lien-ching-tzu, Camp 245 (near rest-house; C. 1) ... ... 41° 33′ 40″
1913-15. Camp 107, about 9 miles to E. of camp (B. 3) ... ... 40° 32′ 49″
Tun-huang town, Camp 110 (garden about ½ mile outside E.
gate; B. 4) ... ... ... ... ... 40° 8′ 55″
An-hsi, Camp 120 (temple circ. 1 mile S.W. of West gate; D. 3) 40° 31′ 56″

NOTES ON SHEET No. 39 (NAN-HU)

The surveyed area of this sheet shows
a portion of the extreme western end of the
Nan-shan system and possibly its junction
with the Āltin-tāgh. Of the morphological
connection between the two I am unable to
form any definite view. The ground around
the small oasis of Nan-hu (A. 1) was ex-
plored by me in 1907 and the high plateau
above Shih-pao-ch'êng (D. 1) visited in the
same year. The survey of the intermediate
area was made by R. B. Lāl Singh in 1914.
A description of the Nan-hu oasis, which
is of some antiquarian and historical interest
as marking the position of the 'Yang bar-
rier' of the ancient Chinese border-line, is
given in Desert Cathay, ii. pp. 71 sqq. The
historical topography and physical features
of this ground have been fully treated in
Serindia, ii. pp. 611 sqq.
outermost chain, immediately south of
Tun-huang, is completely overlain by high
ridges of drift-sand which have given the
town its later name of Sha-chou, 'the City
of Sands'. Behind this outer hill-chain a
wide plateau, mostly bare gravel waste,
slopes up towards the well-defined second
low range (D. 4) within which lies the small
oasis of Tung-pa-t'u. The T'a-shih river
coming from the snowy range further south
has cut its way through both outer chains in
deep narrow gorges.
Corrections. A. 4. Add ancient wall-
line between towers T. XXII b and T. XXII c
and eastwards to lake-shore.
B. 4. Add symbol of astronomical la-
titude station at Ch'ien-fo-tung.

The positions adopted for Tun-huang
and An-hsi in Sheet No. 38 and the adjusted
traverse of the tāgh-yol from Mirān to the
former place served as a basis for the compi-
lation of the plane-table work. Besides the
observed latitude of Nan-hu, the astronomi-
cal values for Ch'ien-fo-tung (No. 38. B. 4)
and Shih-pao-ch'êng (No. 41. A. 1), places
falling just outside this sheet, offered a useful
check.
The deep-cut, and for a considerable
distance wholly inaccessible, valley of the
Tang-ho or Tun-huang river divides the sur-
veyed area into two portions, both closely
allied in character. In the western one the
great gravel glacis holds a basin with fertile
loess soil, and irrigation supplied mainly by
subsoil drainage permits limited cultivation
here under conditions closely resembling