- Then between Sven Hedin's and Prjevalsky's lakes, and across the
desert to Shachau to join the ancient Chinese road of the Han Dynasty,
partly explored by M. Bonin from Shachau.
There is no doubt as to the discovery of Prjevalsky's Lob-nor, but this
does not appear to be the old Chinese Lob-nor; in fact, there may have
been several lakes co-existent; probably there was one to the east of the
mass of water described by Dr. Sven Hedin, near the old route from Korla
to Shachau; there is no fixity in these waterspreads and the soil of this
part of Asia, and in the course of a few years some discrepancies will
naturally arise between the observations of different travellers. But as I
think that Marco Polo did not see one of the Lob-nor, but travelled
between them, there is no necessity to enlarge on this question, fully
treated of in this note.
See besides the works mentioned above: Nord - Tibet und Lob-nur Gebiet...
herausg. von Dr. G. Wegener. Berlin, 1893. (Sep. abd. Zeit. Ges. f.
Erdk.) - Die Geog. wiss. Ergebnisse meiner Reisen in Zentralasien,
1894-1897, von Dr. Sven Hedin, Gotha, J. Perthes, 1900.
Bonvalot and Prince Henri d'Orleans (De Paris au Tonkin, a travers le
Tibet inconnu, Paris, 1892) followed this Itinerary:
