Ritter's Extracts, Indeed, Regarding This
Desert, Show That The Constant Occurrence Of Sandhills And Deep Drifts
(Our Traveller's "Hills And Valleys Of Sand") Makes The Passage Extremely
Difficult For Carts And Cattle.
(III.
375.) But I suspect that there is
some material error in the longitude of Lake Lop as represented in our
maps, and that it should be placed something like three degrees more to
the westward than we find it (e.g.) in Kiepert's Map of Asia. By that map
Khotan is not far short of 600 miles from the western extremity of Lake
Lop. By Johnson's Itinerary (including his own journey to Kiria) it is
only 338 miles from Ilchi to Lob. Mr. Shaw, as we have seen, gives us a
little more, but it is only even then 380. Polo unfortunately omits his
usual estimate for the extent of the "Province of Charchan," so he affords
us no complete datum. But his distance between Charchan and Lob agrees
fairly, as we have seen, with that both of Johnson and of Shaw, and the
elbow on the road from Kiria to Charchan (supra, p. 192) necessitates our
still further abridging the longitude between Khotan and Lop. (See Shaw's
remarks in Proc. R. G. S. XVI. 243.)
[This desert was known in China of old by the name of Lew-sha, i.e.
"Quicksand," or literally, "Flowing sands." (Palladius, Jour. N. China B.
R. As. Soc. N.S. X. 1875, p. 4.)
A most interesting problem is connected with the situation of Lob-nor
which led to some controversy between Baron von Richthofen and Prjevalsky.
The latter placed the lake one degree more to the south than the Chinese
did, and found that its water was sweet. Richthofen agreed with the
Chinese Topographers and wrote in a letter to Sir Henry Yule: "I send you
two tracings; one of them is a true copy of the Chinese map, the other is
made from a sketch which I constructed to-day, and on which I tried to put
down the Chinese Topography together with that of Prjevalsky. It appears
evident - (1) That Prjevalsky travelled by the ancient road to a point
south of the true Lop-noor; (2) that long before he reached this point he
found the river courses quite different from what they had been formerly;
and (3) that following one of the new rivers which flows due south by a
new road, he reached the two sweet-water lakes, one of which answers to
the ancient Khas-omo. I use the word 'new' merely by way of comparison
with the state of things in Kien-long's time, when the map was made. It
appears that the Chinese map shows the Khas Lake too far north to cover
the Kara-Koshun. The bifurcation of the roads south of the lake nearly
resembles that which is marked by Prjevalsky." (Preface of E. D. Morgan's
transl. of From Kulja across the Tian Shan to Lob-nor, by Colonel N.
Prjevalsky, London, 1879, p. iv.) In this same volume Baron von
Richthofen's remarks are given (pp. 135-159, with a map, p. 144), showing
comparison between Chinese and Prjevalsky's Geography from tracings by
Baron von Richthofen and (pp. 160-165) a translation of Prjevalsky's
replies to the Baron's criticisms.
Now the Swedish traveller, Dr. Sven Hedin, claims to have settled this
knotty point. Going from Korla, south-west of Kara-shahr, by a road at the
foot of the Kurugh-tagh and between these mountains and the Koncheh Daria,
he discovered the ruins of two fortresses, and a series of milestones
(potais). These tall pyramids of clay and wood, indicating distances in
lis show the existence at an ancient period of a road with a large
traffic between Korla and an unknown place to the south-east, probably on
the shores of the Chinese Lob-nor. Prjevalsky, who passed between the
Lower Tarim and the Koncheh Daria, could not see a lake or the remains of
a lake to the east of this river. The Koncheh Daria expands into a marshy
basin, the Malta Kul, from which it divides into two branches, the
Kuntiekkich Tarim (East River) and the Ilek (river) to the E.S.E. Dr. Sven
Hedin, after following the course of the Ilek for three days (4th April,
1896) found a large sheet of water in the valley at the very place marked
by the Chinese Topographers and Richthofen for the Lob-nor. This mass of
water is divided up by the natives into Avullu Kul, Kara Kul, Tayek Kul,
and Arka Kul, which are actually almost filled up with reeds. Dr. Sven
Hedin afterwards visited the Lob-nor of Prjevalsky, and reached its
western extremity, the Kara-buran (black storm) on the 17th April. In
1885, Prjevalsky had found the Lob-nor an immense lake; four years later
Prince Henri d'Orleans saw it greatly reduced in size, and Dr. Sven Hedin
discovered but pools of water. In the meantime, since 1885, the northern
(Chinese) Lob-nor has gradually filled up, so the lake is somewhat
vagrant. Dr. Sven Hedin says that from his observations he can assert that
Prjevalsky's lake is of recent formation.
So Marco Polo's Lob-nor should be the northern or Chinese lake.
Another proof of this given by Dr. Sven Hedin is that the Chinese give the
name of Lob to the region between Arghan and Tikkenlik, unknown in the
country of the southern lake. The existence of two lakes shows what a
quantity of water from the Thian Shan, the Eastern Pamir, and Northern
Tibet flows into the basin of the Tarim. The Russian Lieutenant K. P.
Kozlov has tried since to prove that the Chinese Lob-nor is the Kara-
Koshun (Black district), which is a second lake formed by the Tarim, which
discharges into and issues from the lake Kara-buran. Kozlov's arguments
are published in the Isvestia of the Russian Geographical Society, and
in a separate pamphlet. The Geog.
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