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0665 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / Page 665 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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money to buy rank forthwith at Peking. For weeks
after his anecdotes and little indiscretions about that quaint
'Civil Service' of the New Dominion which he knew so
well, with all its glitter and foibles, were more lively
than ever.

It was very hard to say good-bye to P'an Ta-jên for
good. So I, too, indulged in a sort of sanguine self-
deception by promising to return once more when my
Mandarin friend will himself be Fu-t'ai at Urumchi! It is
not for me to foresee what official wisdom may yet hold in
store for P'an Ta-jên. But can I hope for the freedom to
fulfil my part of the promise?

After sending off Lal Singh to the mountains due
north I moved up the valley of the Taushkan Darya, the
main feeder of the Ak-su River, and after three pleasant
marches through almost continuous cultivation (Fig. 311)
reached by May 8th the picturesquely situated small town
of Uch-Turfan. I found it full of interesting Kirghiz
folk from the valley higher up, and from the grazing-
grounds on the high T'ien-shan range overlooking it (Fig.
303). The latter forms the boundary towards Russian
territory around the Issik-kul Lake, and is crossed here by
the Bedel Pass, over which since ancient times an im-
portant route has connected the Tarim Basin and Western
Turkestan. I had here the satisfaction of visiting the last
bit of ground in Chinese Turkestan trodden by Hsüan-
tsang, my patron saint, which I had not previously seen.
In addition I was able to use a brief stay here for interest-
ing anthropometrical work among the Kirghiz, who have
supplied so important an element to the racial composition
of the present population in the Tarim Basin, especially in
its north-western portion.

From Uch-Turfan I made my way south across barren
and yet remarkably picturesque hill ranges, practically
unsurveyed before, to the little-known oasis of Kelpin.
In the Uch-Turfan Valley I had heard vague stories about
ruins of some mysterious town which was said to be
sighted on clear days far away in the mountains, but to
disappear whenever search for it was made. When on
May 11th a thirty-five miles' march in a broad and arid