Qfarnell Hniocraitg ffiihratg 
 
 atljara, Nem ^orb 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION 
 
 CHINA AND THE CHINESE 
 
 THE crPT OF 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 CLASS OF 1876 
 
 1918 
 
DS 785.P97""' """""•"^ '■""'^ 
 '"'TlllUlftiiSS'lS&ffiS,..!!?" Shan to Lol>- 
 
 3 1924 023 421 856 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023421856 
 

 '/n 
 
FROM KULJA, 
 ACROSS THE TIAN SHAN TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 Ill' 
 
 COLONEL N. PREJEVALSKY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF " TRAVELS IN MONGOLIA." 
 TEANSLATED BY 
 
 E. DELMAR MORGAN, F.R.G.S. 
 
 UEM. OF THE IMP. BITSS. OEOGB. SOO. 
 
 INCLUDING NOTICES OF THE LAKES OF CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 Wiiti) Utvotinctian 
 By sir T. DOUGLAS rORSYTH, C.B., K.C.S.I. 
 
 AND MAPS. 
 
 Honllon : 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, 
 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 
 
 1879. 
 
 l^AU rights reserved.'] 
 
LONDON : 
 OILBEKT AND EIVINGTON, PMNTEES, 
 
 ST. John's square. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The favourable reception accorded two years 
 ago to " Travels in Mongolia," and the interest 
 which still attaches to the countries of Central 
 Asia induce me to publish an English version of 
 Colonel Prejevalsky's travels to Lob-nor, the more 
 readily that po European hitherto has visited it 
 in modern times. 
 
 That Colonel Prejevalsky's narrative is so brief 
 is accounted for by the great physical prostration 
 from vv^hich its author has been suffering, the 
 effect of hardship and exposure in desert and 
 swamp, necessitating his giving up for the time 
 all literary work and taking complete rest at his 
 estate in the government of Smolensk. 
 
 Soon after this translation was begun, Baron 
 von Eichthofen's lecture, delivered before the 
 Berlin Geographical Society, on the results of Pre- 
 
 A 2 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 jevalsky's journey appeared in print. So interest- 
 ing and suggestive a commentary from the pen 
 of one of the first geographers of the day could 
 not fail to attract the attention of the public. I 
 therefore lost no time in communicating with the 
 Baron through the kind instrumentality of Colonel 
 Yule, and received from him a prompt reply to 
 my request for further particulars, together with 
 two map-tracings illustrating his views. The 
 following extracts are from Baron Richthofen's 
 letter to Colonel 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 con- 
 structed to-day, and on which I tried to put down 
 the Chinese topography together with that of 
 Prejevalsky. It appears evident — 1, that Preje- 
 valsky 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 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 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 
 Prejevalsky . . . 
 
 " Orography is the weakest point of Chinese 
 maps. Where a mountain is marked there is 
 certain to be one; but it is impossible to say 
 whether it be high or low, steep or rounded, con- 
 tinuous or isolated. The boundary, however, of hill 
 country towards level land can in most cases be 
 approximately traced. In the present case it [i. e. 
 the hill country] is about as far distant from Khas- 
 omo as the Altyn-tagh is from the Kara-Koshun." 
 
 Upon receiving this I wrote to Colonel Preje- 
 valsky, asking him to furnish me with replies to 
 Baron Richthofen's criticisms, so as to enable me 
 to throw as much light as possible on the subject 
 in the book I was preparing for the press. A 
 translation of his answer wiU be found on pages 
 160 — 165 of the present volume. 
 
 In the meanwhile a paragraph appeared in the 
 Athenceum of the 14th September from which I 
 quote the following : — 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 "It would appear that the Russian traveller 
 Prejevalsky in his last remarkable journey in the 
 heart of Central Asia, did not explore Lob-nor at 
 all, as he claims to have done. Baron Ferdinand 
 von Richthofen, one of the first comparative 
 geographers of the day, has examined the account 
 of the journey more especially by the light of 
 Chinese literature, and proves, almost incontest- 
 ably to our thinking, that the true Lob-nor must 
 lie somewhere north-east of the so-called Kara- 
 Kotchun Lake discovered by Prejevalsky, and that 
 in all probability it is fed by an eastern arm 
 of the Tarim river. This, at all events, would 
 account for the remarkable diminution in bulk 
 undergone by the waters of that stream as they 
 proceed southward, which could not but strike an 
 attentive reader of the Russian explorer's narra- 
 tive. The whole question is well worthy of further 
 investigation, and it is possible that Prejevalsky, 
 whom a recent telegram from St. Petersburg 
 reports as about to return to Central Asia, may 
 be enabled to elucidate it." 
 
 On reading this it seemed to me that the writer 
 had been a little too hasty in his conclusions, and 
 that Colonel Prejevalsky might suffer an injustice 
 
PBEFACJU. VU 
 
 were the statement allowed ito pass without com- 
 ment. I therefore wrote to the Editor of the 
 AthencBum, saying that I thought the remarks con- 
 tained in his paper were somewhat premature. 
 
 Having now given the substance of the con- 
 troversy, I leave the reader to form his own 
 conclusions, but whatever these may be, it is im- 
 possible to deny that a tribute of praise is due 
 from geographers of all nations to Colonel Preje- 
 valsky for the undaunted energy and perseverance 
 shown by him in all that he has undertaken. 
 
 The article on Lakes Balkash and Ala-kul is 
 taken from the best Russian authorities, whilst 
 that on the Starovertsi may be of interest to the 
 general reader. 
 
 In the map, Mr. Weller, of Red Lion Square, 
 has incorporated all the most recent information 
 procurable, and in the region round Kulja or 
 Kuldja, the cartography has been corrected 
 according to a Russian MS. map in the collection 
 of the Royal Geographical Society compiled in 
 1872, from surveys taken on the spot. 
 
 B. DEiiMAE Morgan. 
 
 15, lloLANB Gardens, S.W. 
 October, 1878. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introdtjctoey Remarks . ... 1 
 
 CHAPTER I, 
 
 Departure from Kulja — Valley of the Hi — Crossing the 
 Tekes — Inhabitants — Fertility of Kunges Valley — 
 Abundance of fruit ; bears, birds, &c. — Pass to the 
 Tsannaa — Fir forests — Autumn in the mountains — 
 The Narat range — Yulduz and its fauna — Hunting — 
 OvisPoli — Descent of Tian Shan — YakubBeg's envoys 
 — River Kaidu-gol — Arrival at Korla — Jealousy and 
 distrust of officials —Desert of Lob — Hydrograpliy of 
 Lower Tarim — Barren country — Oleasters — Monoto- 
 nous scenery . . . . . . . .31 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 Fauna of Tarim — Avi-fauna — New species — Inhabitants 
 of Tarim — Rude dwellings — Details of population — 
 Dress of the people — Cloth manufacture — -Habits, 
 pursuits, and diet — Position of their women — Pecu- 
 liarities and failings — Route continued — Observations 
 for altitude — Natives are suspicious — Airilgan-ferry — 
 Climate — VUlage of Chargalyk — Cherchen, Nai, and 
 Keria — -Ruins of Lob — Starovertsi — Start for Altyn- 
 tagh — Description of these mountains — Mountainous 
 system — Fauna of Altyn-tagh — Hardships — Return 
 to Lob ......... Gl 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Wild camel hunters — Habits of this animal — Mode of 
 killing it — Distinguishing marks— Its origin con- 
 sidered—Lake Kara-buran— Chon-Kul, or the Great 
 Lake— Disappearance of the Tarim — Mode of fishing 
 — Lake-dwellers — Animal life — Details of population 
 ■ — Appearance of natives; language; dwellings — Cloth 
 made of Asclepias fibre — Domestic utensils— Occu- 
 pations and religion — Marriage — Burial of dead — 
 Expert boatmen — Existence in winter — Novel sur- 
 roundings — Ornithology, extraordinary number of 
 birds — Duck-shooting — Specimens for the collection 
 — Migratory waterfowl — Climate — Departure of birds 
 — Dust storms — Spring at Lake Lob — Return to 
 Korla — Yakub Beg's presents — Yulduz again — Spring 
 vegetation — Return to Kulja — Close of expedition . 88 
 
 Remaeks on the Resuits or Col. Peejevalskt's 
 
 JorENET TO LOB-NOE AND AltXN-TAGH, BY BaEON 
 VON RiCHTHOEEN 135 
 
 Colonel Peejbvalsky's Replies to Baeon Rioht- 
 hoeen's Ceiticisms 160 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Fauna oe the Taeim Valley and Lob-noe . . 166 
 
 LAKE BALKASH. 
 
 Earliest notices — Origin of name — First surveys — Russian 
 explorers — Assanoff; Schrenk — Incorrect cartography 
 — Feodoroff's observations — Height of lake and rela- 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 tive position — Rivers flowing into it ; the Hi and its 
 headwaters the Tekes — Muzart pass — Kulja and its 
 neighbourhood — The Lepsa — Chubar-agatch valley — 
 TheKara-tal — Buddhistic remains — Nifantieff deputed 
 to survey Lake Balkash — Preparations ; he launches 
 his boats — Difficulties — He constructs a felt dam ; 
 arrives at the lake : begins survey — His assistant 
 shipwrecked — He completes survey following year . 169 
 
 LAKE ALA-KUL. 
 
 Humboldt's theory on the lake — Topography — Meaning of 
 the name — Geographical position and height — Alter- 
 nation in level — Rivers flowing into it — Subsidiary 
 lakes : Sassyk-kul, or "the stinking lake ;" Jelanash- 
 kul, or " the open lake ' ' — Island of Aral-tiube — Russian 
 settlement — Fate of Chuguchak — New Russo-Chinese 
 trade-route — Ala-kul in summer — Barlyk range — 
 Russo-Chinese frontier — Arasan, or mineral springs — 
 The Ehbi wind — Legend concerning it — Inhabitants . 187 
 
 THE STAROVERTSI. 
 
 Origin of raskol — Society in Central Russia twenty years 
 ago — Repressive measures of Emperor Nicholas — 
 Retreats of the Starovertsi — Grigorieff's note on the 
 Lob-nortsi — Historical sketch of " Kamenshiki " — 
 Their refuges in Siberia — Bielovodiye — Meaning of 
 the word " Kamenshiki " — First settlers — Their re- 
 treats in the mountains ; huts, occupations, fishing, 
 and trapping expeditions — Beaver hunting — Mode of 
 obtaining salt — Inefiectual measures of government — 
 First discovery of refugee Starovertsi — Their patri- 
 archal mode of life : system of administering justice ; 
 quarrels and dissensions ; crimes and immorality — 
 Extraordinary punishment — Intercourse with Chinese 
 
XU CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 — Necessity for adopting more effectual measures of go- 
 vernment —They give themselves up to the Chinese and 
 are sent to Kobdo — Captivity there — Release and re- 
 turn to Siberia — They open negotiations with Russian 
 government — Interview with Lieut. Priyesjeff — Em- 
 press Catherine II. pardons them — Visit of M. Printz 
 in 1863 — Villages of Uimon and Koksa — Crossing 
 the Holsun range — Camp in the forest — Bear-hunting 
 adventures — Steep ascent of the pass — Splendid view 
 — Precipitous descent — The Chernovoi or Black Water 
 — Luxuriant vegetation — Apiaries — Valley of the 
 Bukhtarma — Settlement of Sennoi — Bielki, or snowy 
 mountains — Village of Pikalka — Farms of Kamen- 
 shiki — Bukhtarma honey — Warm summer — Fur dis- 
 tricts — Mode of catching sables — Vagabond habits of 
 Kamenshiki — Their comparison with outlawed com- 
 munities in America — Conclusion .... 203 
 
 Index 237 
 
I.oiul"". Sdinpfon I'i'i*-, Mars Ion . St'iirlt-, A Hiviiuitoi 
 
K(K^>*>l!«r, «**/ /i..-. .-C^.k^-* t,-ut^ 
 
 •wfkMI 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 The ancient history of this region is enveloped in 
 considerable obscurity, but such glimpses as we 
 are able to get at it through the stories of 
 travellers, and the more or less fabulous tales of 
 Mohammedan and other writers, are not without 
 interest. For several centuries anterior to the 
 Christian era it formed part of the empire of Turan, 
 swayed by a long line of Scythian kings, who are 
 referred to a common descent from the great 
 family of Afrasyab. 
 
 The power of the Scythians appears to have 
 been first broken by their western neighbours of 
 Iran, and finally extinguished by the Macedonian 
 conquest. 
 
 Syawush, about 580 B.C., fleeing from his father 
 Kaikaos, crossed the Jyhoon, and sought refuge 
 with the enemy of his family Afrasyab, who re- 
 ceived him with kindness, and granted him an 
 honourable asylum, and gave him his daughter, the 
 beautiful Farangis, in marriage, with the provinces 
 of Khoten and Chin as her dowry. Tliithci- 
 
 B 
 
2 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 Syawush retired witli his bride, and settling at 
 Kung — probably Katak, the ruins of whicli now 
 exist near Lob, at twelve or sixteen days' journey 
 ]Sr.B. of Khoten, made it the capital of his govern- 
 ment of Khoten and Chin, or, as it is usually 
 styled, Machin, which together comprised the 
 southern and eastern portion of the great basin 
 known as Eastern Turkestan. 
 
 The Baotrian kingdom of Soghdiana, invaded 
 bv Alexander the Great about 300 B.O., was in its 
 turn overthrown by the invasion from the north 
 of the great Yuechi, or Tokhar, a branch of the 
 Tungun or Eastern Tartar people, who were 
 driven from their lands westward to the banks of 
 the Hi river just anterior to 200 B.C. by the Hiun- 
 guns or Huns, who conquered all the country from 
 the borders of China to the Volga, which they 
 held with varying success till their power over the 
 territory of Kashgar was broken, and they were 
 subjected to the Chinese about 94 a.d., in which 
 year the city of Kashgar was captured and an- 
 nexed to China. For a long period this region 
 was under the rule of Chinese governors, but 
 gradually passed into the hands of petty inde- 
 pendent princes, who were strong enough to throw 
 off their subjection to the empire, but who main- 
 tained a kind of allegiance, by sending periodical 
 embassies to China. In fact it is recorded that 
 such embassies from the extreme frontier states 
 were of very frequent occurrence, owing to the 
 
INTRODUCTOEY EEMABKS. d 
 
 facilities they afforded for smuggling merchandise 
 through the frontier custom-houses. Their real 
 object, as a mere cloak for purposes of trade, was 
 soon recognized by the Chinese Government, and 
 since the large number of foreigners entering the 
 country in the train of the envoys gave rise to 
 numerous disputes and much inconvenience, orders 
 were issued for placing them under severe restric- 
 tions, and the operation of these regulations soon 
 led to their discontinuance. 
 
 The most noted amongst these independent 
 tribes seem to have been the Uighurs, whose chief, 
 Satuk Boghra Khan, was the first Tartar prince 
 who brought the Uighur people together as a 
 nation. His empire extended from the shores of 
 the Caspian to the Desert of Gobi, and the frontiers 
 of China. He, moreover, introduced Islam into 
 Eastern Turkestan towards the end of the tenth 
 century. 
 
 The government of the Uighur passed into the 
 hands of the Gurkhan of the Kara Khitai about 
 the beginning of the thirteenth century. 
 
 These Uighurs were Turks, and were known to 
 the Chinese as Hoei-hoei. In the second half of 
 the eighth century and beginning of the ninth 
 they were all powerful in Eastern Asia, and had 
 their capital in Karakorum. 
 
 Nestorian Christianity was widely spread among 
 them, and it was from the Nestorians that they 
 doubtless derived their alphabet, which is founded 
 
4 INTEODUCTOEY B:EMARES. 
 
 on the Syriac. They taught letters to the Mon- 
 gols, and were in early times the most cultivated 
 race of Eastern Asia. From these people Jinghiz 
 Khan borrowed a creed for his nomads, and letters 
 in which to reduce their language to writing. 
 The accountants, secretaries, and civil servants of 
 both Jinghiz and his immediate successor were 
 almost always taken from the same nationality. 
 Their pi-incipal seat was Bishbalik (Ourumtsi). 
 
 The empire of Kara Khitai had been founded 
 by a fugitive from China, a scion of the royal race 
 of the Liau or Khitan dynasty, who escaped when 
 that dynasty was overturned and ejected by the 
 Yueche or Kin. Its sovereigns were styled the 
 Gur khans. They ruled immediately over the area 
 known to the older geographers as Little Bucharia 
 or Dzungaria, the Arslan Khans of Kashgar and 
 the chiefs of the IJighurs being subject to them. 
 In A.D. 1208 Kushluk, son of the chief of the 
 JSTaimans, took refuge at their court. The Gurkhan 
 was then a weak prince, the Naiman treacherous 
 and crafty. He asked permission to collect the 
 debris of his father's army, which was then scat- 
 tered in the countries of Imil Kayalik and Bish- 
 balik. The Gurkhan allowed him to do so, gave 
 him the title of Gushluk Khan, and also .gave him 
 his daughter in marriage. He then collected an 
 army, and, treacherously leaguing himself with the 
 Khuarezm Shah, proceeded to overturn the power 
 cf his patron, and took Gurkhan prisoner, but left 
 
INTEODUCTOEy EEMARKS. 5 
 
 him the title of sovereign, which he only enjoyed 
 for two years, and on his death Gushluk succeeded 
 to the throne. He attacked and killed the Khan 
 of Almalik, and ravaged the country of Kashgar. 
 D'Ohsson says that having been brought up a 
 Christian, he embraced Buddhism on the solicita- 
 tion of his wife, a daughter of Gurkhan. Another 
 account represents his wife as being Christian, 
 whilst he remained a Buddhist. 
 
 Gushluk, though master of a wide empire, was 
 unable to stand against the overwhelming force 
 of Jinghiz Khan, whose general, Chepe Noyan, 
 marched against Kashgar, in a.d. 121 9, when Gush- 
 luk abandoned the city and fled across the Pamir 
 to Badakshan, where he was captured and taken 
 to Chepe, who had him beheaded. By the over- 
 throw of Gushluk the Mongol dominion was ex- 
 tended over the whole country of Central Asia. 
 
 In the partition of the realm of Jinghiz Khan 
 among his sons, the region of Eastern Turkestan, 
 with Almalik as its capital, fell to the share of 
 Jagatai, and his successors held it until Timur 
 came with fire and sword, and made it part of his 
 extensive empire. Then followed a confused 
 period of dissensions between Mongol princes and 
 Mongol tribes, during which we are led to believe 
 that the civilization of Almalik and of the neigh- 
 bouring cities of the valley of the Hi entirely dis- 
 appeared. Regardirg this city of Almalik, Colonel 
 Yule gives the following information : — 
 
b INTRODUCTOET REMARKS. 
 
 " As early as the time of Jagatai himself, his 
 summer qamp was in the vicinity of Almalik, and 
 when Hulagu was on the march from Karakorum 
 to destroy the mulahid or ' assassins ' in Persia 
 (a.d. 1254) the princess regent Organah, widow 
 of Kara Hulagu, grandson and successor of 
 Jagatai, came out from Almalik to receive him 
 with due honour." Hence it would appear that 
 AlmaHk was one at least of the capitals from a 
 very early date. In the following century, about 
 1330-34, we find Ibn Batuta observing that it was 
 the proper capital of the kings of this dynasty, 
 and that one of the charges brought against the 
 Khan Tamarshin which led to his supersession 
 was that he always remained in Mawar-al-nahr, 
 and for four years running had not visited Almalik 
 and the eastern dominions of his family. 
 
 Bishbalik-Ourumtsi was at first the head-quar- 
 ters of the Khan, but it was afterwards transferred 
 to AlmaHk. 
 
 MarignoUi gives the following account of his 
 visit to the great Khan : — 
 
 " We went to the first Emperor of the Tartar 
 tribes and laid before him the letters which we 
 bore, with certain pieces of cloth, a great war- 
 horse, some strong liquor, and the Pope's pre- 
 sents. And after the winter was over, having 
 been well fed, well clothed, loaded with handsome 
 presents, and supplied by the king with horses 
 and travelling expenses, we proceeded to Armalu, 
 
INTRODUCTOET BEMAEKS. / 
 
 the capital of the Middle Empire. There we built 
 a church, bought a piece of ground, dug -wells, 
 sung masses, and baptized several, preaching 
 freely and openly, notwithstanding the fact that 
 only the year before the Bishop and six other 
 minor friars had there undergone for Christ's 
 sake a glorious martyrdom." 
 
 During the supremacy of the descendants of 
 Jinghiz, Jungaria, or Dzungaria, as all this'country 
 has been indifferently called, was the camping- 
 ground of three powerful Mongol tribes — Chores, 
 Hoshot, and Torgut, who subsequently took the 
 name of Oirat, or confederates. 
 
 About the middle of the fourteenth century the 
 Chinese threw off the Mongol yoke, and remained 
 independent till the middle of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, when, after frequent wars, the Oirat defeated 
 the Chinese in a very sanguinary battle, took the 
 Emperor prisoner, and marched to the walls of 
 Peking. Chance alone saved China. The Mon- 
 gols retired to the steppes, the taitsi or "Wuzeer 
 Esen, who had killed his brother-in-law, the 
 Khan, was assassinated, and the most brilliant 
 period of the Oirat power was at an end. They 
 were unable to maintain their influence in Mon- 
 golia, and for a century and a half almost dis- 
 appeared from history. 
 
 "We shall see a little farther on, how, in the 
 present time, China has on another occasion been 
 indebted to the assassin's hand for extrication 
 
8 INTRODUCTOET REMAEKS. 
 
 from troubles on her western frontier, and how 
 the death by violence of the Ameer Yakub Beg has 
 been followed by the dissolution of his kingdom. 
 
 We now pass on to the reign of the Emperor 
 Kien Long, who conquered Kashgar and Eastern 
 Turkestan, and having slaughtered or expelled 
 the whole Dzungarian population, repeopled the 
 country of Dzungaria by sending military colonies 
 from Manchuria, by deporting Chinese criminals, 
 and by bringing agriculturists from Eastern Tur- 
 kestan. For the purpose of keeping the country 
 in order, the city of Hi, or what is called Man- 
 chu Kulja, was built as the seat of government, 
 and was settled by Manchus. Six other forts 
 were built. 
 
 It is owing to these wars and invasions, with 
 their constant changes of population, and to the 
 measures taken by the Chinese Government that 
 the region of Kulja has its present curious mix- 
 ture of races and peoples. 
 
 The settlers from Eastern Turkestan became 
 known as Taranchis, literally agriculturists, or 
 millet-sowers, from " taran," millet. (Schuyler's 
 « Turkistan," ii. 168 seq.) 
 
 The mihtary colonists were brought from 
 Dauria, in North-West Mongolia, and consisted 
 of Solons, who are still famous in all China for 
 their skill in archery, and Sibos, a tribe on whose 
 gratitude the Chinese Government could especially 
 count, because at the accession of the Manchu 
 
INTEODUCTOEY REMARKS. » 
 
 dynasty they were freed from their slavery to the 
 Mongols. 
 
 The country being secured in this way, it was 
 perfectly safe for the Chinese to send there the 
 Dzungars and the Oirat, who had previously 
 sought their protection; and, subsequently, they 
 also allowed many to come back who had fled from 
 the massacres, and had taken refuge among the 
 Kirghiz. These were further reinforced by the 
 arrival of the Kalmuks, from Eussia, in a.d. 1771, 
 whose journey has been immortalized by De 
 Quincey, in his "Flight of a Tartar Tribe." 
 These Kalmuks were settled in the excellent pas- 
 ture-grounds on the Kunges and the Tekes, where 
 they still live under the name of Torguts. 
 
 All these difierent races were kept in order by 
 a military force of Manchus and Chinese, with a 
 Jan-jun, or governor-general, living in Hi Kulja, 
 while the Amban of Eastern Turkestan, residing 
 at Kashgar, and that of Tarbagatai, resident at 
 Chuguchak, were subject to him. 
 
 This state of things continued, with occasional 
 disturbances, and especially risings of the Moham- 
 medan khojas, in Kashgar, till the grand Moham- 
 medan upheaval in China, when for a time the 
 Imperial authority was swept away, and a Moham- 
 medan kingdom was established in Turkestan by 
 Yakub Beg. 
 
 This is not the place to give a detailed history of 
 the rise and consolidation of Yakub Beg's power, 
 
10 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 and I -would refer any who are interested in the 
 subject to Dr. Bellew's work Kashmir and Kash- 
 gar — for a full description of the country under 
 the Ameer's rule. So long as he lived it ap- 
 peared that the prestige of his successes, and the 
 vigour of his administration would render the task 
 of Tso Tsung Tang, the Chinese general appointed 
 by the Court of Peking to reorganize the country, 
 a very hopeless business. But what was denied 
 to the half-starved, ill-disciphned forces under his 
 command, was accomplished by the hand of an 
 assassin. Those who were in London last year 
 may have observed the fine manly figure of an 
 Oriental prince, whose countenance and demeanour 
 won for its possessor golden opiaions in English 
 society. Syud Yakub Khan, nephew and chief 
 adviser of the late Ameer, had come to England 
 not merely to repeat the sentiment of friendship 
 which his uncle felt and heartily expressed 
 towards her Majesty the Queen, but he had 
 another object in view, viz. to bring about, if 
 possible, an amicable understanding between the 
 Chinese Government and his master, by which 
 Yakub Khan might retain possession of the 
 country he had won by his sword, at the same 
 time, yielding allegiance to the Chinese, as sove- 
 reigns of the land. But whilst negotiations were 
 progressing between the two parties news came 
 of the assassination of the Ameer, and of con- 
 sequent disturbances in the State of Kashgar. 
 
INTRODUCTOET EEMAEKS. 11 
 
 It followed as a matter of course, that the dis- 
 sensions and internecine feuds which at once 
 sprang up, afforded a splendid opportunity for the 
 advance of Tso and his Chinese army, and he 
 soon found himself courted and welcomed by the 
 inhabitants of Aksu and other cities who were 
 anxious to throw off the Mohammedan yoke. 
 Even Niaz Beg, the Mohammedan ruler, under 
 the Ameer of Khoten, sent messengers to invite 
 the advent of the Chinese, and went into open 
 rebellion against the Ameer's son Beg Kuli Beg, 
 who was wounded in a fight with his rebellious 
 lieutenant. The Governor of Kashgar, Alish 
 Khan Dadkhah, for a time restored the fortunes 
 of the family, by defeating the force of the 
 late Ameer's murderer. Hakim Khan Tura. But 
 Beg Kuli Beg soon afterwards stained his hands 
 by the murder of his young brother, Hak Kuli 
 Beg, and the drama closed on the 5th December, 
 when Beg Kuli Beg and his followers fled from 
 the city of Kashgar, and took refuge in Russian 
 territory. It is worthy of note, that some English 
 merchants who remained in Yarkand after the 
 Ameer's death, and during the first few months 
 of the subsequent disturbance, were in no way 
 molested, but returned to India in perfect safety 
 at the end of the year. 
 
 It is curious and at the same time interesting 
 to go back just ten years, and read once more by 
 the light of recent events the brilliant article in 
 
12 INTKODUCTOBY BEMAEKS. 
 
 the Edinburgh Bevieio on Western China. Had 
 the talented writer of that article lived, how 
 vividly wonld he have depicted the rise and fall 
 of the Mohammedan power in Eastern Turkestan. 
 It would be waste of time and a vain effort on 
 my part to attempt to recapitulate here the tale 
 which has been so admirably told by Mr. Wyllie, 
 of the progress of the Mohammedan insurrection 
 against the yoke of the Chinese, which culminated 
 in the establishment of Yakub Beg's complete 
 ascendancy over the whole of what was called 
 Altyshahr. But I cannot refrain from doing 
 more justice to the memory of the late Ameer 
 Yakub Beg than the able reviewer was disposed 
 to award him. The bare idea of despatching an 
 embassy to Central Asia aroused in the mind of 
 the Reviewer feelings of the bitterest hostility, 
 and called forth what he himself admits was 
 strong language regarding the ignorant temerity 
 of officers who would place their lives in the 
 hands of the bloodthirsty and perfidious bar- 
 barians of Central Asia. But very soon after- 
 wards the triumphant return of Messrs. Shaw 
 and Hay ward from a lengthened sojourn in Kash- 
 gar, when they were the honoured guests of the 
 Kushbegee Yakub Beg, taught us to moderate 
 the fears which had been excited by the Reviewer ; 
 and the subsequent intercourse which Europeans, 
 both commercial agents and officials, have main- 
 tained with that country, so long as Yakub Beg's 
 
INTEODUCTORY REMARKS. 13 
 
 rule lasted, lias completely falsified Mr. Wyllie's 
 prediction. But on another point Mr. Wyllie's 
 hopes proved to be well founded. Tlie Kush- 
 begee or Ameer, not being a mere soldier of for- 
 tune, but something of a statesman also, the first 
 use he made of the consolidation of his conquests 
 was to resuscitate the trade which recent wars 
 and tumults had all but extinguished in Eastern 
 Turkestan. Opinions are very much divided as 
 to the extent of expansion of which this trade is 
 capable; but sufBcient improvement has taken 
 place within this decade, to make it desirable to 
 continue our fostering care. In the days of the 
 Chinese supremacy, the commerce with Yarkand 
 was next to nothing, and was looked upon by the 
 Chinese as contraband. Now that they have 
 regained possession of the country, it is to be 
 hoped that they will profit by the lesson which 
 has been taught them in another province of 
 China, where rebellion was put down, but where 
 they have lately been compelled to admit Western 
 civilization through the door which the Moham- 
 medans of Yunnan opened during the short period 
 of their emancipation. 
 
 It would be for the interest of the Chinese 
 quite as much as for the benefit of British trade 
 that a British consul should be established at 
 Yarkand or Kashgar, to regulate trade and to 
 maintain friendly relations. In former days the 
 chief business done by our traders with Eastern 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 Turkestan was in opium, wtiich they smuggled 
 across the Karakorum and sold for enormous 
 profit in Yarkand and Khoten. This pernicious 
 trade ceased entirely when the Chinese disap- 
 peared, and its place was taken by a much more 
 healthy commerce in tea and Enghsh piece-goods. 
 
 Are we now to revert to the old state of things, 
 shut up the export of Manchester goods and take 
 to smuggling opium ? I trust not, indeed. The 
 subject is one well worthy the attention of the 
 Indian authorities. 
 
 Colonel Prejevalsky complains of the very 
 strict surveillance to which he was subjected 
 during his stay in the dominions of Yakub Beg. 
 Doubtless it was very annoying, and it might be 
 even disappointing to find after all the friendly 
 intercourse with both Eussians and English, and 
 the exchange of treaties of friendship, that freedom 
 of action was stUl denied to European travellers. 
 
 But we must not judge Asiatics as we would 
 judge European princes. There was ancient cus- 
 tom to guide him, and if the Ameer knew anything 
 of history, he might fairly plead excuse for his 
 alarm at a too unrestricted influx of foreigners. 
 The ancient custom to which I have referred was 
 to keep all foreign travellers more or less in con- 
 finement, and always under the strictest sur- 
 veillance. Mr. Shaw, in the very interesting 
 account of his adventurous journey to the court 
 of the Atalik Ghazee, tells us how he was treated 
 
INTEODUCTORT EEMARKS. 15 
 
 on the road, with the utmost kindness and hospi- 
 tality, but always as a kind of state prisoner. 
 During the whole of his stay in Yarkand and 
 Kashgar he was not once allowed to go outside 
 the quarters assigned to him, except on a visit to 
 the authorities. Force was never employed, but, 
 on the contrary, he was continually deceived by 
 an apparent anxiety to meet his wishes for an 
 enlargement of his confinement ; but somehow or 
 other, in a most clever manner, without giving 
 him ground for actual quarrel, some untoward 
 circumstance arose to prevent his breaking 
 through his restraint. Hayward, who was more 
 impetuous, broke through the cordon of guardians, 
 and caused considerable trouble and apprehension 
 in the mind of his fellow-traveller, lest by so 
 doing he had jeopardized their lives. 
 
 When Lord Mayo despatched the first mission 
 to Yarkand in 1870, I endeavoured to stipulate 
 with Mirza Shadee, the Atalik's envoy, that free- 
 dom of movement should be granted to us. This 
 he promised, though he explained that it was the 
 unvarying custom in Central Asia to keep all 
 envoys in .confinement at the court to which they 
 were accredited, and even to lead them blindfold 
 through the streets. On arrival in Yarkand 
 territory we found Mirza Shadee somewhat slow 
 to keep his promise, and Dr. Henderson relates 
 the state of excitement into which the envoy was 
 thrown, on discovering that he had fallen behind 
 
16 INTEODUCTOEY REMARKS. 
 
 our party, in order to shoot some specimens of 
 birds. And when we reached Yarkand, Mirza 
 Shadee considered himself altogether absolved 
 from his promise, and an attempt, which was 
 successfully but with great difficulty resisted, was 
 made to subject us to the same confinement as 
 Messrs. Shaw and Hayward had undergone. 
 
 When the second mission was sent in 1873 aU 
 doubt on this point was cleared up at the outset, 
 and within certain limits no restraint whatever 
 was put upon our movements. At first spies in 
 the shape of escorts were always attached to us. 
 But even this precaution was in time dropped, 
 and we w^re allowed to come and go just as we 
 liked. But all this was within certain limits. 
 Distant expeditions to Aksu, Korla, and Lake 
 Lob, though often promised, were finally for- 
 bidden; a visit to Khoten, which was at first 
 suggested to me, and subsequently talked of as a 
 matter of course, was at last peremptorily pro- 
 hibited, and it was only after some diplomatic 
 fencing that I was able to despatch a party across 
 the Pamir. All this conduct was very disap- 
 pointing, quite as much so to us as it was to 
 Colonel Prejevalsky; but on looking back on 
 the whole circumstances, I cannot altogether 
 blame the Ameer for acting according to his 
 light. In addition to the ancient custom pleaded 
 by Mirza Shader, there was another very potent 
 reason for shyness on the part of our Asiatic 
 
3NTR0DUCT0EY REMARKS. 17 
 
 chief to receive strangers unrestrained. From 
 tte earliest times the gold-fields of Khoten have 
 been known to exist, though as yet they have 
 never been visited by any European. The 
 scientific researches of Dr. Stoliczka revealed to 
 the Ameer of Kashgar the existence of rich mines 
 of copper, lead, coal, and other hidden wealth, 
 all which treasures the Ameer showed his wisdom 
 in wishing to keep for his own use ; and he could 
 not be altogether unacquainted with the fact that 
 foreigners who travel in Asia to explore too often 
 stay to annex. 
 
 And as regards Colonel Prejevalsky and the 
 advent of Russians in Eastern Turkestan, Yakub 
 Beg was doubtless aware of ancient traditions, 
 as are recorded by Mons. Gregorieff, and more 
 lately by Howorth in his History of the Mongols. 
 
 Like most other countries, Russia has had its 
 romantic El Dorado, a land outside its borders, 
 where it has fancied wealth and ease might be 
 bought easily by washing gold out of a river, and 
 which led to some adventurous journeys. This 
 El Dorado was the country of little Bukharia, 
 and especially the neighbourhood of Yarkand 
 (and Khoten) reported to be rich in gold deposits. 
 
 In 1714, Prince Gagarin, Governor of Siberia, 
 presented a report, in which he suggested that it 
 would be possible to appropriate this country, 
 and he suggested that a series of forts should be 
 pushed along from the Irtish as far as Yarkand, 
 
 c 
 
18 INTRODUGTOET EEMAEKS. 
 
 to form a protection fhrougli the Kalmuk terri- 
 tory. With the note he sent specimens 6f the 
 gold dust -which had been taken to Tobolsk for 
 sale. In consequence of this, Ivan Bukholz was 
 ordered by the Emperor to repair to Siberia, and 
 having collected a force of 2000 or 3000 men to 
 proceed to build a fort near the Lake Yamish, 
 and then, if possible, to make his way to Yarkand. 
 Bukholz so far carried out his orders that he 
 built a fortress on the Yamish which was viewed 
 by the Kalmuks as an invasion of their territory, 
 which they for the time successfully repelled ; but 
 as we know, the power of Russia gradually spread 
 with irresistible force. In 1718 the fort of Semi- 
 palatinsk was built, and by a.d. 1720 the Russians 
 had reached Lake Zaisan. This, says Mr. Howorth, 
 was apparently the last attempt made by the Rus- 
 sians to reach the gold country of Yarkand. But 
 this is not so. Gradually but persistently they 
 have advanced towards the golden land. They 
 occupy Kulja, and have brought their boundary 
 line to the Robat Pass and Chadir Kul, within 
 110 miles of Kashgar, and this journey of 
 Colonel Prejevalsky had for its object the 
 thorough exploration of the route by the gold- 
 fields of Khoten to Tibet, and it is not sur- 
 prising that the Ameer should watch his proceed- 
 ings with more than ordinary interest. 
 
 During the stay of the English Mission in Kash- 
 gar in 1873-74, good opportunity was afforded for 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 19 
 
 obtaining information regarding the very interest- 
 ing countries under the sway of the late Ameer 
 Yakub Beg. A few extracts from the official 
 report which has not yet been more than sparsely 
 pubhshed may be useful in throwing additional 
 light on the particular region traversed by Col. 
 Prejevalsky. 
 
 The chief cities on the southern slopes of the 
 Tian Shan range are Aksu, Kucha, Korla, Kara- 
 shahr, and will be noticed in order. Aksu is a very 
 ancient city, and was formerly called Arpadil or 
 Ardabil. It is situated at the base of the Tian 
 Shan range at the southern entrance to the Muzart 
 or Glacier Pass. It covers two ridges of gravel 
 heights on the left bank of the Aksu river, where 
 it is joined by the Ush or Kokshal river, and has 
 a citadel on each ridge. This city was destroyed 
 by earthquake in a.d. 1716. The climate is de- 
 scribed as very salubrious, though the winters are 
 extremely rigorous. The citizens are peaceable 
 and industrious. They are more purely Turk in 
 their physiognomy than the citizens of Kashgar or 
 Yarkand, and are supiposed to be the people of 
 Artush, north of Kashgar, the purest representa- 
 tives of the ancient TJighur conquerors. 
 
 Aksu is celebrated for its manufactures of 
 saddlery and harness, its pottery, and rude hide 
 jars. Its tobacco is considered the best that is 
 produced in the country. The mineral resources 
 of the country are considerable, and mines of lead, 
 
 c 2 
 
20 INTEODTJCTOET EEMAEKS. 
 
 copper, and sulpliur have been systematically 
 ■worked, whilst coal is used in the city as fuel. 
 The lead-mines are in Tajik Tagh, about twenty-five 
 miles off the city, and those of copper are at On- 
 bash, on the Muzartriver. In the vicinity of the city 
 are hot sulphur springs, which are resorted to by 
 the inhabitants for medicinal purposes. There is 
 also an active volcano, from the base of which are 
 collected alum, sal-ammoniac, and blue vitriol or 
 sulphate of copper. The asbestos mentioned by 
 Marco Polo as an utilized product of this region is 
 not even so known in this country. 
 
 The Muzart or Mussart Pass connects this divi- 
 sion with Ih or Kulja. The road by this pass 
 crosses an enormous glacier, which is interrupted 
 by vast fissures and massive banks, and unless 
 constantly kept open by gangs of labourers, 
 becomes speedUy impassable. 
 
 Kucha is a small state situated at the foot of the 
 mountain, in continuation eastward from Aksu. 
 In ancient times it was an important little princi- 
 pality, and a flourishing seat of Buddhism. On a 
 hill to the north of the city are the ruins of an 
 ancient temple and monastery. They are described 
 as of considerable extent, and very substantially 
 buUt of stone on the ledges and rocks of a pre- 
 cipitous hUl. 
 
 Fragments of sculptures are found among the 
 debris, and in some galleries sunk in the rock 
 there are paintings of men and animals on the 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 21 
 
 walls as fresh and bright in colour as if they 
 were new. Precious stones, gems, and trinkets are 
 occasionally found in the rubbish of the crumbled 
 walls, and marvellous tales are told of the lustre 
 and size of some that have been picked up here by 
 wandering shepherds. A large figure is said to 
 exist here, carved on the face of a rock overlook- 
 ing the road to Korla. It is described as having 
 the tongue lolled out, and right shoulder depressed 
 with extended arm, as in the fashion of the Kal- 
 muk salutation. It acknowledges the salutes of 
 passers by a return wag of the tongue and wink 
 of the eye, and has been often seen to smile, by 
 credulous Kalmuks at least. 
 
 In the mountains to the north is a volcano, and 
 from its base a river called Zamcha issues. On its 
 banks are dry alum and a salt of zinc called 
 Zamch, which is used as a mordant with alum in 
 dyeing. The rocks at the foot of the hiU are hot 
 to the touch, but the water of the river is cold. 
 Loud rumblings and explosions are constantly 
 heard in the interior of the mountain, which is 
 very high, and whose top is always covered with 
 snow. It is called Khan Khura Tagh, and forms 
 the boundary between Yulduz of the Kalmuk and 
 Junghar of the Kirghiz and Kassak, who are also 
 called Juttah (or Jete) Moghols. 
 
 Khan Khura Tagh is the western boundary of 
 the Yulduz territory, and has a live volcano. This 
 Yulduz Yalley is celebrated throughout the region 
 
22 INTEODUCTOET EBMAEKS. 
 
 of Central Asia for its beauty, its springs, meadows^ 
 and fine breezes. The farmsteads are described 
 as models of neatness and thrift, and the orchards 
 produce the finest apples and pears, and pome- 
 granates in the country. The pears are of a pe- 
 cuHar excellence, of light colour, soft granular 
 structure, and very juicy. The apples are of a 
 peculiar kind called Muzalma, or Ice apple, their 
 skin being transparent, and the substance the same 
 as if iced. 
 
 This valley was the favourite camping-ground 
 of Timour after his campaign of extermination 
 against the Juts. 
 
 A native of these parts, speaking in raptures of 
 the delights of this valley, said, " Just as you think 
 Kashmir superior to all the rest of the world, so is 
 Yulduz superior to Kashmir." 
 
 Korla is the next division, at the foot of the 
 Khan Khura range, and the town of that name is 
 the one where Colonel Prejevalsky first came in 
 contact with Yakub Beg's officials. 
 
 The next division eastward, is Karashahr, which 
 occupies a valley between the Uighur Bulak to 
 the north (a continuation eastward of the Alatagh 
 or Tengri Ula range), and the Kurugh Tagh range 
 , of sandhills to the south. These coalesce towards 
 the east and close the valley in that direction at 
 Gumish Akma, about ninety miles from the city, 
 but towards the west the valley is open, and gives 
 passage to the Kaidu river, which, on crossing 
 
INTKODUCTORY EEMAEKS. 23 
 
 from the Yulduz valley, spreads over the southern 
 portion of this basin, and forms the Baghrash Kol 
 or lake, which is described as a long sheet of water, 
 five days' journey in length, and covered with 
 floating islands of tall reeds, amidst which the river 
 flows in the- western end of the lake only. It is se- 
 parated from the Lob district to the south by the 
 Kurugh Tagh, a wide range of sandy and gravelly 
 ridges, amongst the hoUows of which the wild 
 horse and wild camel breed. There is a road 
 between the lake and this range, seven days' 
 journey from Korla to Ush Aktal, and there is 
 another along its southern side, between it and 
 Lob, seven days' journey from Kara Koshun 
 to Turf an. The city of Karashahr stands near 
 the left bank of the river, to the north of the lake. 
 Fifty miles north-east of this city is Ush Aktal, 
 and twenty miles beyond it, and about the same 
 distance from Gumish Akma, where the road 
 enters the hills, there are the ruins of an ancient 
 city, called Kara Kizil, which are supposed 
 to be the remains of the ancient Jalish or 
 Chalish. 
 
 Colonel Prejevalsky's actual observations at 
 Lake Lob are exceedingly interesting, as they 
 corroborate much that appeared doubtful in the 
 accounts received from former travellers. As 
 Marco Polo in former times, and Colonel Yule at 
 the present day, are the great authorities on all 
 matters -connected with the geography, and to a 
 
24 INTEODUCTOfiY REMAEKS. 
 
 great extent of the history of Central Asia, I 
 will take these authorities first. 
 
 Marco Polo mentions a city called Lob or Lop, 
 five days' journey from Oharchan, at the entrance of 
 the Great Desert, the inhabitants of the city being 
 Mohammedans. Such persons as purpose to 
 cross the Desert, take a week's rest in the town to 
 refresh themselves and their cattle, and then they 
 make ready for the journey, taking with them a 
 month's supply for man and beast. On quitting the 
 city they enter the desert. 
 
 Colonel Yule, in his copious notes, endeavoured 
 to fix the longitude of Lop, placing it three degrees 
 more to the westward than it is put in our maps, 
 putting it, in fact, in 88° E. of Greenwich. Colonel 
 Prejevalsky has now scientifically fixed its position. 
 Regarding the ancient cities buried in the sand, 
 which have been said to exist in these regions, we 
 now have Colonel Prejevalsky's testimony, but it 
 is unfortunate that he was unable to make excava- 
 tions or any extended explorations, or he might 
 have enabled us to award the exact value to a curious 
 description of the ruins of one city given by a 
 Kirghiz traveller, and contained in the report of 
 the Yarkand Mission. He says (see page 46) : — 
 
 " They are on the desert to the east of the 
 Katak ruins, and three days' journey from Lob, in 
 a south-west direction along the course of the 
 Khoten river. The walls are seen rising above 
 the reeds in which the city is concealed. I have 
 
INTRODUCTOEY REMARKS. 25 
 
 not been inside the city, but I bave seen its walls 
 distinctly from tbe sandy ridge in tbe vicinity. 
 I was afraid to go amongst the ruins because of 
 the bogs around and the venomous insects and 
 snakes in the reeds. I was camped about them 
 for several days with a party of Lob shepherds 
 who were here pasturing their cattle. Besides it 
 is a notorious fact that people who do go amongst 
 the ruins almost always die, because they cannot 
 resist the temptation to steal the gold and precious 
 things stored there." 
 
 Another statement of his is as follows (page 
 30) :— 
 
 " Nobody can go more than three or four days' 
 journey to the east of the lake, owing to the depth 
 of the soft powdery sahne soil, on which neither 
 man nor beast can find footing. From the lake a 
 river goes out to the south-east, across an immense 
 desert of this salt and sand. At fifteen days' or 
 twenty days' journey it passes under a mountain, 
 and reappears on the other side, in China. In 
 olden times a young man of Lob went in his boat 
 to explore the river beyond the lake. After going 
 down the stream for seven days he saw a mountain 
 ahead, and on going closer he found the river 
 entered a frightful black and deep chasm in the 
 rocks. He tried to stop his boat, but the swift- 
 ness of the current carried it into the chasm. At 
 its farther end he saw a small black hole inside the 
 mountain, and had only time to lie down in the 
 
26 INTEODUCTOEY EEMAEKS. 
 
 bottom of the boat, wben it was drawn into the 
 dark passage. The top of the boat scraped the 
 roof of the channel, and bits of stone continually 
 fell upon him. After a long time he emerged from 
 the darkness into light, and found the bottom of 
 his boat strewed with nuggets of gold. He went 
 down the river for some days, and finally found 
 himself in Peking." 
 
 In the mythical geography of the Chinese, less 
 exaggerated than that of the Hindoos neverthe- 
 less, the Hoang Ho is made to rise in the eastern 
 slopes of the Bolor. By the river Tarim, and by a 
 subterranean passage, they placed it in communi- 
 cation with Lake Lob, which they thought was 
 a part of a vast dried-up sea. and which, according 
 to M. Lassen, has given the Hindoos the first 
 notion of a northern sea. 
 
 This story would appear to be the popular mode 
 of accounting for the belief that the river Tarim, 
 flowing through Lake Lob, and being apparently 
 lost in the Great Desert, in reality reappears in 
 China as the great Hoang Ho, or Yellow Eiver. 
 
 The idea that the waters of the Tarim, flowing 
 through Lake Lob, communicate with a large 
 Chinese river, which empties itself into the sea, 
 seems to have prevailed from early times until 
 now. In the Tarikhi Eashidi, of Mirza Haidar, 
 Lake Lob is mentioned as covering an area four 
 months' journey in circuit, and as giving exit to 
 the great Kara Moran river of China. Since that 
 
INTKODUCTOEY EEMABKS. 27 
 
 time there has been a gradual desiccation, and a 
 recent traveller, a native of those regions, thus 
 describes the tract : — " Lob is a succession of 
 lakes along the Tarim river. Bach lake gives off 
 five or six streams, which spread over the plain 
 and reunite lower down to form the next lake, 
 and so on for a journey of thirty days by the road. 
 Beyond this is the great desert, of which nobody 
 knows anything." 
 
 Humboldt in his " Asie Centrale " makes the 
 following remarks : — 
 
 " It is one of the chief geographical features of 
 the country that to the east of the great river 
 of Khoten (Khoten-daria or Youroung-Kach-gol), 
 which, after a course of three hundred miles from 
 south to north, flows into the water system of 
 the Tarim and of Lake Lob, all the streams of 
 the two slopes of the Kuen-lun are lost in the 
 small lakes of the steppes. 
 
 " In this central region, between the 80° and 
 90° longitude, the upheaval of the Gobi makes 
 itself felt in the course of the streams, an up- 
 heaval which causes an entirely independent 
 direction of profile {accident du relief) to that of 
 the sand-ripples which cover it, far more ancient 
 than these, and probably connected with the first 
 appearance of the continent above the waters. 
 
 " The intersection offered by the Gobi, the 
 Kuen-lun, and the Tian-Shan, must not there- 
 fore be confounded with the interlacement of 
 
28 TNTKODUCTORY EBMAEKS. 
 
 two ranges; as for instance, of the Bolor or of tlie 
 meridian chains to the east of the river Tzang-bo- 
 schou with the Hindoo Khoosh and the Hima- 
 layas. The phenomenon which we describe is of 
 quite a different nature. The upheayal of the 
 Plateau of Gobi, stretching from S.W. to N.B., 
 and, according to the most exact barometrical 
 measurements taken in the 43° and 48° of latitude, 
 about four thousand feet mean height, is perhaps 
 of the same age as the great Aralo- Caspian 
 depression." 
 
 The account of the Lob district, given in the 
 Report of the Yarkand Mission, may be advan- 
 tageously compared with Colonel Prejevalsky's 
 personal observations. 
 
 Lob is the name of a district on the banks of 
 the Tarim river, which is formed by the union of 
 all the rivers from Yulduz, of Hi, round by 
 the western circuit of Kashgar to Khoten and 
 Charchan. 
 
 Lob was only peopled 160 years ago by emi- 
 grant families of the Kara Kalmuk, Koshot, Tor- 
 gute, &c., to the number of 1000 houses. They are 
 now all ■ professedly Mussulmans, and have MuUa 
 and Imam priests amongst them, but they do not 
 know much about Islam. There were people in 
 Lob before these Kalmuk emigrants came, but 
 nothing is known regarding them. They are 
 called " wild " people, because they delight to live 
 with the wild beasts and their cattle in the thickets 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 29 
 
 and brakes about the marshes. They are small, 
 black men, with long matted hair, and shun the 
 society of other men. Whenever they see any 
 strangers, they run away and hide in the thickets 
 and reeds. Nobody knows whence they came, or 
 where they hve, and nobody understands their 
 language. They are very timid, but, though only 
 armed with bow and arrow, and long pike, are 
 brave hunters. They keep cattle, and have no 
 cultivation. They wear clothes of a coarse strong 
 material called luf, the fibre of a plant which has 
 a flower and a pod like the wild liquorice. It 
 protects the wearer from the attacks of gnats and 
 mosquitoes, which never alight on this cloth. 
 
 The population of the Lob settlement is reckoned 
 at 1000 houses. There are no permanent houses, 
 but the inhabitants live in reed huts, or else in 
 boats. There is no cultivation, and the people 
 live on fish, and the produce of their flocks and of 
 the chase. They govern themselves according to 
 their own customs, and are little interfered with 
 by the authorities. At all events, during the 
 Ameer's rule it would appear that there was little 
 hope of getting any revenue out of them. Some 
 of their customs, as told to Dr. Bellew, are peculiar. 
 They always swear upon the gun, and if any one 
 wishes to free himself from an accusation, he 
 appeals to the accuser to produce his gun, and 
 kissing the muzzle, places it against his breast, 
 and bids him fire. This throws the responsibility 
 
30 INTRODUCTORY EBMAEKS. 
 
 on the accuser, who on this proof of innocence 
 retracts his calumny. 
 
 Another somewhat pecuHar custom is thus 
 related by Dr. Bellew. During the spring and 
 summer seasons the young people are in the habit 
 of racing along the river. A party of six or eight 
 maids form up on the river, each in her own skiff, 
 and a party of as many youths form up on the 
 bank, each on his own horse. At an agreed signal 
 they all start off to an appointed goal, the maids 
 paddhng down the stream, and the youths gallop- 
 ing along the bank. If the maids win, they select 
 a partner for the night from amongst the youths, 
 each in the order of her arrival at the winning- 
 post. Similarly if the youths win, they choose 
 their companion from the maids in turn. The 
 contract only lasts for that night, and the coup- 
 lings vary with the chances of each successive 
 race, though often the same partners meet. If a 
 girl becomes pregnant she points, out the author, 
 and he marries her. 
 
 T. Douglas Foestttt. 
 
 Note. — Many of these remarks have been taken from the 
 official narrative of the Mission to Kashgar in 1873, which has 
 not been published to the world. — T. D. F. 
 
TEAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Departure from Kulja — Valley of the Hi — Crossing the Tekes — 
 Inhabitants — Fertility of Kunges Valley — Abundance of 
 fruit ; bears, birds, &e. — Pass to the Tsanma — Fir forests — 
 Autumn in the mountains — The Narat range — Yulduz 
 and its fauna — Hunting — Ovis Poll — Descent of Tian 
 Shan — Takub Beg's envoys — River Kaidu-gol — Arrival at 
 Korla — Jealousy and distrust of officials — Desert of Lob — 
 Hydrography of Lower Tarim — Barren country — Oleasters 
 — Monotonous scenery. 
 
 Another successful step in the exploration of Inner 
 Asia — the basin of Lob-nor, so long and so 
 obstinate a terra incognita — has at length been 
 revealed to science. 
 
 As originally contemplated, the starting-point 
 of my expedition was the town of Kulja.^ Here 
 I arrived at the end of July, 1876, with my two 
 
 ' [There were two towns of this name, about twenty-five miles 
 apart. The one mentioned in the text is the old Tartar town, 
 now the head-quarters of the Eussian administration of the 
 province of Hi; the other. New or Manchu Kulja, was a 
 flourishing Chinese city of about 75,000 inhabitants until the 
 late Mohammedan rising, when it was taken by the rebels, the 
 whole population put to the sword, and the city reduced to ashes. 
 See Schuyler's TurMstan, ii. 162 et seqq. — M.] 
 
32 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOB. 
 
 companions, Lieut. Povalo-Schweikofsky, and a 
 volunteer of thie name of Eklon. Adequately 
 supplied this time -with funds, I was able to buy 
 in St. Petersburg and Moscow all tbe requisite 
 stores for so long a journey, and these, together 
 with guns and ammunition (the latter supplied by 
 Government), weighed about two tons. This 
 weight I had to transport from Perm to Kulja on 
 five postal troikas which took me more than a 
 month, delayed by the abominable state of the 
 roads in crossing the Ural. 
 
 At Semipalatinsk we were joined by the com- 
 panions of my last expedition to Mongolia — the 
 Trans-Baikalian Cossacks, Chebayeff and Irin- 
 chinoff, who declared their readiness to share with 
 me once again the hardships and privations of a 
 new journey. One other Cossack was also sent 
 from Trans-Baikalia to act as interpreter of the 
 Mongol language, and I took three others at 
 Vernoye from the Semiretchinsk force. Lastly, 
 at Kulja itself I hired a Kirghiz Christian convert, 
 who spoke the Sart language. In this way the 
 personnel of my expedition was formed, but un- 
 fortunately I was not nearly so successful in the 
 choice of my companions as I had been on the 
 last occasion. 
 
 Nearly three weeks were occupied at Kulja in 
 the final formation and equipment of our caravan, 
 consisting of twenty-four camels and four riding- 
 horses. The latter were bestridden by myself, my 
 
DEPAETUBE. VALLEY OP THE ILL 33 
 
 companions, and one of the Cossacks. We Were 
 all admirably armed ; besides fowling-pieces each 
 carried a Berdan rifle swnng over tte shoulder, 
 and a brace of pistols in our holsters. 
 
 Our original plan was to proceed to Lob-nor, 
 explore as much of this lake and its environs as 
 possible, and then return to Kulja, leave our col- 
 lections here, and taking our remaining supplies, 
 start for Tibet. 
 
 On the morning of the 12th of August we took 
 our departure from Kulja, accompanied by the 
 good wishes of our countrymen resident at that 
 town. 
 
 Our road lay at first up and almost alongside 
 the bank of the Hi, whose valley is here thickly 
 settled by Taranchis.^ Clean, pretty villages with 
 gardens, shaded by lofty silver poplars, follow each 
 other in quick succession. In the intervals are 
 corn-fields irrigated by numerous watercourses, 
 whilst on the meadows along the river's bank 
 large herds of sheep, oxen, and horses are grazing.^ 
 The population is everywhere apparently pros- 
 perous; the Mohammedan rising never having 
 
 ' [These were agricultural colonists from Eastern Turkistan, 
 of whom Sir D. Forsyth has spoken in his introductory remarks. 
 According to M. Eadloff, quoted by Schuyler, their language 
 is more specifically Turkish than that of any book published at 
 Constantinople. — Turkistan, ii. 169 seq. — M.] 
 
 ' [Schuyler, who visited the Hi valley in 1873, thought it 
 the richest part of Eussia's recent acquisitions in Asia. — ii. 198. 
 — M.] 
 
 D 
 
34 TEAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 desolated this part of the valley. The districts 
 which were laid waste lie below Kulja, following 
 the Hi. Here, too, agriculture once flourished, 
 but since the extermination of the Chinese inhabi- 
 tants by the Taranchis and Dungans, the villages 
 are mostly destroyed, and even such towns as Old 
 Kulja, Bayandai, Chimpanzi, and others are in 
 ruins, the fields deserted and choked with weeds. 
 After crossing to the left bank of the Hi, near the 
 mouth of theKash (fifty versts beyond Kulja), we 
 continued as before to ascend its valley, in this 
 part twenty versts wide, and having the appear- 
 ance of a steppe plain with a clayey and slightly 
 saline soil, producing Geratocarjpus, dwarf worm- 
 wood, and Lasiogrostis ; in the more fertile part 
 astragalus, a few kinds of herbs or plants of the 
 order compositce, and small gnarled bushes ; whilst 
 the river bank is Mnged with thick cane-brake. 
 
 The width of the Hi near the mouth of the Kash 
 is about 500 feet, with a very rapid stream. Ta- 
 ranchi villages continue for twelve versts further 
 up the right bank from the confluence of the Kash 
 — the left bank has no settled population. Here 
 only occasional fields temporarily tilled by the 
 Kalmuks may be seen, and these only nearer the 
 river Tekes. The last-named stream flows from 
 the Mussart, and unites with the Kunges to form 
 the Hi, which empties its muddy waters into Lake 
 Balkash. [See supplementary note.J 
 
 The Tekes, here 350 feet wide, with a terribly 
 
CROSSING THE TEKES J TUEQUTBS. 35 
 
 swift stream, is crossed in small, rotten ferry-boats. 
 On these our baggage was taken across ; the 
 horses and camels were fastened behind the boat, 
 and were made to swim to the opposite bank. 
 This swim proved very injurious to the camels, 
 and three soon afterwards died from the effects of 
 it. Beyond the Tekes our road lay continually in 
 the sameeasterly direction by the valley of the Lower 
 Kunges,* which is hardly distinguishable from 
 that of the Upper Hi, excepting that feather-grass 
 is more abundant. The hills, bordering the valley 
 as before, are covered with grass, rounded in out- 
 line, and totally bare of trees as far as the river 
 Tsanma. Here the traveller sees the last of the 
 fields and encampments of the Turgutes ; ^ beyond 
 his point, as far as the Kara-shahr valley, no in- 
 habitants are to be met with. The flora of the 
 plain we had hitherto traversed from Kulja was 
 very scanty ; and the fauna equally deficient. The 
 season too (latter half of August) was most un- 
 favourable for ornithological researches and pre- 
 paring skins, many of the birds being in the 
 moulting stage. But snakes and lizards were 
 
 * [Colonel Yule informs me that the route followed by Colonel 
 Prejevalsky seems to be the same as that of Shah Eukh's em- 
 bassy to China in 1420, which went by the Kunges and 
 Ynlduz to Turfan.— M.] 
 
 ' [The Turgutes or Torgutes,as already mentioned {vide supra, 
 introductory remarks), are the Kalmuks of the present day, of 
 whom remnants still exist on the Lower Volga. — See Wallace's 
 Bussia, ii. 52 ; and see also pp. 169 — 186 of this work. — M.] 
 
 D 2 
 
36 TEAVBLS TO LOE-NOE. 
 
 very abundant, and we collected a good number 
 of these reptiles. Of fisli we only caught four 
 kinds; Dypticlius,8cMzothorax,-pevGh, and gudgeon. 
 According to the Cossacks, who are great fisher- 
 men, there are no others in the IH. 
 
 As the elevation of the country rises beyond 
 the Tsanma,* the valley of the Kunges changes its 
 character, and becomes narrower and more fertile. 
 Instead of the clumps of vegetation we had 
 hitherto seen, excellent and varied herbage clothed 
 the undulating plain, growing higher and thicker 
 every ten versts or so as we advanced ; the outline 
 of the marginal hills became sterner, and spruce 
 firs began to show themselves, their lower belt 
 marking the hmit of the summer rains. 
 
 Eain, however, does fall, although perhaps 
 less abundantly, in the steppe zone, where the 
 elevation is 4000 feet, or even somewhat less. At 
 this point larch woods begin growing on the banks 
 of the Kunges itself, interspersed with tall poplars 
 (some 80ft. high, with stems 3ft. and 6ft. thick) 
 and apple-trees ; birch and apricot are more rare. 
 The thick underwood is composed of hawthorn, 
 cherry, woodbine, guelder rose, and briar. The 
 islands in the river are thickly overgrown with 
 tall salix or willow, round whose stems the wild 
 
 ° Kulja is about 2000 feet above sea-level. It should be 
 noticed that although the heights have all been measured 
 barometrically, the results obtained have as yet only been 
 worked out approximately. 
 
FBETILITY OF KUNGES VALLEY. 37 
 
 hop is often twined, and tamarisk appears on tiie 
 sandy and stony spots. The woodland meadows 
 and slopes of the neighbouring hills are every- 
 where clothed with the thickest grass, interwoven 
 with convolvulus and dodder, often 7ft. high and 
 almost impassable in summer. But at the season 
 we arrived on the Kunges (early in September) 
 the grass was withering and dying down, and the 
 trees and bushes had donned their autumnal 
 attire. 
 
 After the monotony of steppe scenery, the 
 wooded islands and banks of the Kunges produced 
 an agreeable impression, and yielding to its 
 influence we determined on making some stay in 
 this highly-favoured little corner of the Tian 
 Shan. Here, too, we could reckon on a rich, 
 scientific harvest. Moreover, two of our Cossacks 
 had proved unserviceable for travel, and we were 
 obliged to send them back to Kulja and exchange 
 them for two soldiers, whose arrival could not be 
 expected for ten days.' 
 
 We selected for our camping-ground in the 
 forests of Kunges the very spot occupied for some 
 months in 1874 by one of our sotnias of Cossacks. 
 Here the shed they had erected, their kitchen and 
 bath-house were still standing; we too enjoyed a 
 good and final wash in this bath-house before 
 starting for the Tian Shan. 
 
 ' Our Kirghiz interpreter also proved worthless, and he had 
 also to return to Kulja and be replaced by a new one. 
 
38 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 One remarkable characteristic of the Kunges 
 forests, and probably of otter wooded glens on 
 the northern slope of the Tian Shan is the great 
 abundance of apple and apricot-trees ' producing 
 excellent fruit. The apricots, or as they are here 
 called, uriuh, ripen in July ; the apples by the 
 end of August. The latter are about the size of a 
 hen's egg, pale yellow in colour, and with an 
 agreeable bitter-sweet flavour. We were just in 
 time for the apple harvest on the Kunges ; the 
 trees were laden with the fruit, quantities of 
 which strewed the ground, where they decay 
 without benefiting any one, or are devoured by 
 wild boar, bears, deer, and goats, which at this 
 season of the year descend in numbers from the 
 adjacent hills. "Wild boar and bears are parti- 
 cularly addicted to apples, and the latter are 
 known to indulge to excess in their favourite 
 dainty. 
 
 Our sport with the larger game was tolerably 
 successful, and we secured some fine specimens 
 for our collection ; amongst these an old dark- 
 brown bear of a species peculiar to the Tian 
 Shan, and distinguishable from the common 
 bruin by the long white claws on the fore-feet — 
 a peculiarity which induced Severtseff to name it 
 Ursus leuconyx.' 
 
 ' [Compare Aristof s description of the Kunges valley, quoted 
 by Schuyler. — Turhistan, ii. 199 seq^q. — M.] 
 
 " Severtseff identifies his Ursus leuconyx with ZZ isabel- 
 
BIRDS ; PASS TO THE TSANMA. 39 
 
 Besides four-footed beasts, the forests on the 
 Kunges contained many a naigratory -woodcock 
 and thrusli {Turdus atrigularis, T. viscivorus), and 
 lumbers of corncrakes and landrail on the 
 meadow-land. Many of the nesting birds had 
 departed for the south ; of non-migratory we only 
 found an occasional pheasant {Ph. mongoUcus), 
 blue tits (Gyanistes cyanus), woodpeckers, and 
 a few others. The autumnal flight is generally 
 very deficient in this part of the Tian Shan, even 
 in small birds. 
 
 A range of no great elevation, crossed by a pass 
 6000 feethigh, separates the Kunges from the broad 
 valley of the Tsanma, the river we had already 
 crossed near its mouth. Although not more than 
 eight versts apart, the diflference in the height of 
 the respective valleys of the Kunges and Tsanma 
 is nearly 2000 feet. From the pass itseK may be 
 seen, as from an opera-box, on one side the compa- 
 ratively low and deeply indented Kunges valley, on 
 the other the elevated basin of the river Tsanma. 
 
 The latter is about four versts wide, and 
 thickly clothed with high grass. Along the 
 upper course of the river, commencing at an 
 
 Unus Horsf. from the Himalayas. But in my opinion tliey are 
 two distinct species. The Himalayan bear is also met with in 
 the Tian Shan, where it is only known to inhabit the elevated 
 plateaux devoid of trees and the Alpine region, never entering 
 the forest zone. Besides, TJ. isalellirms is of a tawny colour ; 
 17. leuconyx, on the other hand, is dark brown, like the European 
 U. arctos. 
 
40 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 elevation of 6000 feet, are forests, vrhose prevailing 
 trees are the Tian Shan spruce ^ (Picea Schrenhi' 
 ana), the mountain ash now taking the place of 
 the apple or apricot-trees. Spruce firs are also 
 scattered in clumps over the neighbouring moun- 
 tains, growing as high as 8000 feet and even 
 upwards above the sea level. 
 
 The approach of autumn now began to be felt 
 in the mountains. Not very long ago we had 
 been oppressed by the heat on the Hi plain ; now, 
 on the contrary, every morning brought light 
 frosts, snow lay on all the higher mountains, the 
 trees and bushes were shorn of half their foliage. 
 But the weather continued bright and clear, and 
 during the day it would even be hot at times. 
 
 After having ascended the Kunges, and after- 
 wards the Tsanma to its source, we moved 
 towards the foot of the Narat range, which, with 
 its western prolongations,^ forms the northern 
 buttress of an extensive and lofty plateau situated 
 in the very heart of the Tian Shan, and kaown 
 by the name of Yulduz. 
 
 ' This tree attains a height of seventy to eighty feet, with a 
 thickness of stem two, three, and often four feet in diameter. 
 It grows very much in the sugar-loaf shape, its thick branches 
 hardly projecting from the general mass, so that the whole tree 
 has the appearance of having been cropped by a barber. 
 
 ' The western prolongations of the Narat range, taking them 
 in their order, are the Dagat, Kara-nor, KoTco-sung , and Djamha- 
 dahan ranges ; the three last-named are said to be capped with 
 eternal snows. 
 
NARAT RANGE. TtJLDUZ. 41 
 
 Before describing Yulduz, let us say a few 
 words about the Narat. This range though 
 nowhere reaching the Hmit of the perpetual snow- 
 line, presents nevertheless a wild and alpine 
 character. Its solitary peaks with their steep 
 slopes, particularly near the axis of the range, are 
 scored with bare precipitous cliffs forming narrow 
 gloomy chasms. Below these again are the 
 alpine meadows, and lower still on the northern 
 side clumps of spruce fir ; the southern slopes of 
 the Narat are treeless. 
 
 We crossed this range at its eastern extremity, 
 where the ascent is not particularly steep, though 
 difficult for camels ; on the Yulduz side the descent 
 is very gradual. Snow lay in small quantities on 
 the northern slopes during our march, i. e. in the 
 middle of September, whereas on its south side 
 the Narat was completely free of snow. The pass 
 is 9800 feet above sea-level. Near the summit we 
 killed a small boar, preserving its skin for our 
 collection, and its meat for our provision-store. 
 
 Descending the Narat, we entered Yulduz. This 
 name signifies " star," and was perhaps bestowed 
 on the country owing to its elevated position 
 among the moimtains, or from the circumstance 
 of its being the promised land of cattle.^ The 
 
 ' [According to Bellew, Yulduz was the son of Manglai, the 
 son of Timurtash — " Ironstone " — a descendant of Kaian. He 
 raised the Mongol name to the highest fame, and was the 
 ancestor of all the Mongol Khans. (Report of a mission to 
 
42 TRAVELS TO liOB-NOE. 
 
 pasturage is excellent in every part, and it enjoys 
 in summer an immunity from flies and mosquitoes, 
 "an admirable, cool, and productive country, 
 fit for gentlemen and cattle to inhabit," as the 
 Torgutes described it to us. It forms an extensive 
 depression continuing for some hundreds of versts 
 from east to west. In all probability it was at 
 some remote geological epoch the bed of an inland 
 sea, as its alluvial clay soil tends to prove. Yulduz 
 consists of two parts : Greater Yulduz occupying 
 the more extensive westerly half of the whole 
 depression, and Lesser Yulduz the smaller eastern 
 part. Both of these have the same general fea- 
 tures, the difference between them consisting only 
 in their size. Lesser Yulduz, along the whole of 
 which we passed, has the appearance of a steppe- 
 plain extending lengthways for 135 versts, and 
 widening in the centre to thirty versts. 
 
 Near the marginal mountains this plain is 
 hillocky, and covered with luxuriant herbage. 
 Here, too, chiefly in its eastern part grow low, 
 stunted bushes of camel thorn, willow, and Poten- 
 tilla ; of trees there are none in Yulduz. 
 
 The elevation of Lesser Yulduz is from 7000 to 
 8000 feet above sea-level.* The marginal ranges 
 on the north and south are wild, rocky, and of 
 
 Yarkand in 1873, p. 136.) May not the country have derived 
 its name from him, for it was all under Mongol dominion ? — M.]. 
 * The lowest parts are on the lower course of the Baga 
 Yulduz-gol ; on its upper stream and nearer the marginal 
 mountains the country is higher. 
 
FAUNA OF yuldhz. 43 
 
 great elevation, not only above tlie level of the 
 sea, but also above tbat of tbe adjacent plain ; the 
 southern range, dividing Lesser from Greater 
 Yulduz, rises in several places above the limit of 
 perpetual snow.^ Exactly in the centre of Lesser 
 Yulduz, and throughout its entire length, flows 
 the Baga Yulduz-gol, uniting with the Kaidu-gol 
 after the latter has drained Greater Yulduz, and 
 finally emptying into Lake Bagarash. 
 
 We forded the Baga Yulduz-gol, but in spring 
 and summer the water is too high to allow of the 
 fords being practicable. Pish are plentiful, both in 
 the Baga Yulduz-gol as well as in its tributaries, 
 but only of two kinds : ^ Dyptichus, a foot or a 
 little over in length, and gudgeon. About half-way 
 down this river, and for some distance on either 
 side, are marshes (sasi) and lakelets . Here we found 
 in the latter half of September numbers of migrat- 
 ing water-fowl ; ' most of the other birds nesting in 
 this country had taken wing for the south, and it was 
 only now and then that we saw a few in the moun- 
 tains.^ Non-migratory birds ' however are common . 
 
 ^ This range, as well as the northern, has no general name 
 among the inhabitants, who distinguish parts by specific names. 
 
 " At all events, we did not catch any other kind of fish, 
 either in autumn or in spring, on our return journey. 
 
 ' Common wild duck, gadwaU, teal, red-crested pochard, red- 
 headed pochard, and garrot. 
 
 " Eedstart, accentor, mountain finch, and Brandt's finch 
 (Leucosticte Brandtii) the two last-mentioned generally in flocks. 
 
 " Snow vulture, black vulture, wall creeper, rock partridge ; 
 and shore-lark {Otocoris alhigula) on the steppes. 
 
44 TEAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 Yulduz is very ricli in mammalia ; of the larger 
 animals there are brown and tawny bears, Ovis 
 Poli, wild goat, and what are more remarkable, con- 
 sidering the absence of trees, deer and pygargs ; 
 numbers of marmot hybernate as early as the 
 middle of September, when they frequently become 
 the prey of the bear, who grubs up their burrows, 
 and extracts from them the half-dormant little 
 animals. Wolves are very common, and foxes 
 particularly so ; the latter prey on the innumerable 
 field-mice. Amongst others of the rodent order, 
 Siberian marmot are plentiful, but they were also 
 hybernating, and wild boar are occasionally found 
 in the marshes of the Baga Yulduz-gol. 
 
 There are absolutely no inhabitants in either 
 Yulduz, although not above eleven years ago 
 Turgutes lived here to the number of ten thousand 
 kebitkas. Plundered by the Dungans, these 
 nomads retired, partly to Shikho, and partly to 
 the Kaidu-gol to the neighbourhood of Kara-shahr ; 
 while some escaped to our lines on the Hi, where 
 they are living at the present day. 
 
 Our entrance into Yulduz was marked by 
 an unfortunate incident. My companion Lieut. 
 Povalo-Schweikof sky, who from the very first was 
 unable to support the hardships of travel, fell ill, 
 and as he did not recover, was obliged to return 
 to his former place of service. Fortunately my 
 other travelling-companion, the volunteer Bklon, 
 proved to be an energetic and willing youth, and 
 
OVIS POLI-SHOOTING. 45 
 
 "with, a little practice he soon became an invaluable 
 assistant. 
 
 "We stayed about three weeks in Yulduz, hunt- 
 ing most of the time, and succeeded in obtaining 
 about a dozen fine skins for our collection, includ- 
 ing two males of the Ovis Poli. This magnificent 
 sheep, characteristic of and peculiar to the high- 
 lands of Central Asia, is often seen here in herds 
 of thirty to forty. 
 
 These herds are mostly composed of females, 
 and a few young, full-grown males, acting as 
 leaders and protectors. The old males ' hold 
 aloof, and generally roam about singly, or in twos 
 and threes. The favourite resort of these sheep 
 are the spurs of the great ranges, and the smooth 
 slopes leading to the level steppe. They rarely 
 assemble in stern, rocky mountains, where the 
 wild goat ^ makes his home, and where the latter 
 may also be seen in herds numbering forty and 
 upwards, similar in habits to the arkari, and 
 extremely difficult of approach, both on account 
 of his wariness, as well as from the nature of the 
 localities he fi^equents. 
 
 ^ The horns of these old males are of colossal proportions. 
 Those in my collection measure 4 feet 8 inches in length, taking 
 the outside of the curve, and are 1^ feet thick at the base, 
 their weight is about 36 lbs. 
 
 ^ In all probability this is Capra Shyn, not Copra Sihirica, 
 the horns approaching at the tips and turning inwards ; the 
 colour of the hair is a tawny-grey, belly white. The longest 
 horns I saw measured 4 feet. 
 
46 TEAVULS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 The deer we saw in Yulduz belong to the same 
 kind as those inhabiting the forests of the Tian 
 Shan. The stags are of enormous size ; the does 
 are smaller, but fully equal to the full-grown male 
 of the European deer (Gervus elaphus).^ Owing to 
 the absence of forests in Yulduz, the deer frequent 
 the belts of low bushes, climbing the rocks as 
 easily as the mountain sheep, and so like these as 
 to be mistaken for them at a distance. In spring, 
 during the months of May and June, they are 
 eagerly pursued by hunters for the sake of their 
 young horns — so called ' panti,' which fetch high 
 prices in China. Thus, in Kulja, a pair of large, 
 six-pointed antlers is worth fifty to seventy roubles, 
 in first hands ; and even small ones fetch fifteen, 
 twenty, or thirty roubles. The profits derived from 
 this chase induce Russian and native hunters to 
 pursue it with ardour during the spring, through- 
 out the vast expanse of Asia, from Turkestan to 
 the sea of Japan.* 
 
 After we had done hunting we turned into the 
 Kaidu valley, crossing the southern slope of the 
 Tian Shan. The ascent of the pass from the 
 Yulduz side is so gradual as to be hardly per- 
 
 ^ A two-year old buck killed by me on Yulduz, measured 6 
 feet 1 inch in length, 4 feet 3 inches in height at the shoulders. 
 A full-grown doe, killed in the same place, measured 7 feet 
 4 inches in length from the nose to the tail, and stood 4 feet 
 3 inches from the ground. 
 
 ' Compare Mongolia, i. 170. 
 
CEOSSINQ THE TIAN SHAN. 47 
 
 ceptible, althougli tte elevation above sea-level is 
 at least 9300 feet. But the descent on the other 
 side is extremely difficult. For about forty versts 
 the barely-distinguishable track follows the defile 
 of the Habtsagai, and for twenty-two versts 
 further that of the Balgantai river. Both these 
 ravines are exceedingly narrow (in places not 
 more than 400 feet wide), their beds strewn with 
 debris of rock and pebbles, and their sides walled 
 by huge precipitous cliffs. 
 
 The banks of the streams are thickly covered 
 with willow and tamarisk bushes ; lower down, at 
 an elevation of about 6000 feet, buckthorn and elms 
 appear ; and, still lower, barberry and oleaster ; the 
 only grasses found in the ravines are lasiogrostis 
 and I'eeds. The surrounding mountains are 
 entirely bereft of vegetation, the neighbouring 
 desert having affixed the seal of death on this side 
 of the Tian Shan. Atmospheric precipitations, al- 
 though plentiful on the northern side of the range 
 where the rain-clouds deposit their moisture, the 
 last drops of which are wrung out by the snow 
 mountains of cold Yulduz, are absent here, and it 
 is exceedingly probable that the whole southern 
 slope of the Eastern Tian Shan is arid and 
 barren. 
 
 Upon entering the Kaidu valley we descended 
 to 3400 feet above sea level. The weather be- 
 came warm, and the morning frosts no longer 
 severe ; whilst in ' Yulduz, towards the end of 
 
48 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 September, the thermometer marked 10° Pahr. at 
 sunrise, and snow fell occasionally. 
 
 At the camping-ground of Eara-moto, "where 
 we halted, we were well received by the first 
 Turgute inhabitants that we met. Meanwhile, 
 the report spread rapidly of the approach of the 
 Russians, and alarmed the whole Mohammedan 
 population of the neighbourhood. It was stated 
 that Russian troops were marching into this 
 country, and that their advance-guard had 
 already appeared on the Kaidu. This story 
 gained currency when, on our first arrival, the 
 reports of our fire-arms, as we shot pheasants 
 and other birds, began to be heard, and caused 
 such a panic among the Mohammedans living near 
 Kara-moto as to induce them to leave their homes 
 and fly to Kara-shahr. 
 
 Thither notice was of course at once sent of our 
 arrival, but, at first, none of the oflBcials made 
 their appearance. We now sent back to Kulja 
 our guide Tokhta-akhoond, a man devoted to us, 
 but for this very reason hateful to the Moham- 
 medans, he being himself a follower of the 
 prophet born at Korla, whence he had escaped 
 some years previously to Hi. With him we 
 despatched the greater part of our collections, 
 so as not to encumber ourselves needlessly with 
 them. 
 
 On the third day of our appearance at Kara- 
 moto, six Mohammedan envoys from the go- 
 
YAKUB BEG's envoys. 49 
 
 vernor of Korla ® came to inquire the object of our 
 journey, I explained to tliem that we were on 
 our way to Lob-nor, and that Yakub Beg was well 
 aware of this." On receiving my reply the en- 
 voys returned to Korla, but a small picket was 
 stationed on the opposite bank of the Kaidu, to 
 watch our movements. The day afterwards the 
 same envoys reappeared, reporting that the gover- 
 nor had despatched a courier to Yakub Beg,' and 
 that until his answer were received, no permission 
 could be given us to proceed. This decision did 
 not disturb us in the least, as the wooded 
 country on the Kaidu abounded in wintering 
 birds and pheasants. The latter probably belong 
 to a new species, very closely allied to Phasianus 
 Shawii, recently discovered in the neighbourhood 
 of Kashgar by the British mission to Eastern 
 Turkestan, and occurring along the whole length 
 of the Tarim, and on Lake Lob. 
 
 The Kaidu river is from 200 to 270 feet vsdde 
 at Kara-moto, with a very rapid stream and a depth 
 of three to four feet at the fords, which, during 
 summer, are entirely impassable- Pish are plenti- 
 ful in the river, but I cannot say of what kinds, 
 for neither in going nor coming had we the 
 
 ° This town k fifty versts south-east of Kara-shahr. 
 
 " Before our departure from Kulja, Yakub Beg wrote in 
 answer to the Governor- General of Turkestan that the Rus- 
 sians going to Lob-nor would be hospitably received in his 
 dominions. 
 
 ' Who was then at Tokauna, not far from Turfan. 
 
 E 
 
50 TEAVELS TO LOB-NOK. 
 
 opportunity of catching any. Fish too are said to 
 abound in Lake Bagarash, into whicli the Kaidu 
 empties. This lake Hes not far to the west of 
 Kara-shahr, and is very large and deep.^ It 
 would have been very interesting to have explored 
 it ; but, alas, we could not manage this, either 
 in going or returning. 
 
 After a halt of seven days at Kara-moto, we at 
 length received permission to proceed to the town 
 of Korla (but not to Kara-shahr), through which 
 lies the road to Lob-nor. The distance from 
 Kara-moto to Korla is sixty-two versts, and we 
 accomplished it in three days, escorted by the 
 same men who had a little while back first visited 
 us. At each station on the road they brought us 
 a sheep and some fruit. Before Korla could be 
 reached, it was necessary to cross the last spur of 
 the Tian Shan by a defile, through which rushes 
 the Koncheh-daria, flowing out of Bagarash into 
 the Tarim. At either end of this defile, which is 
 ten versts long and very narrow, stands a mud 
 fort, garrisoned by a small force. 
 
 No sooner had we arrived at Korla, and estab- 
 lished ourselves in a house prepared for us outside 
 the town, than a guard was placed over us, on the 
 plea of protecting us ; but, in reality, to prevent 
 any of the townspeople, who are extremely dis- 
 satisfied with Yakub Beg's rule, from communi- 
 
 * According to the Kalmuks, it is eight or nine days' ride 
 round Bagarash. 
 
ARRIVAL AT KORLA. 51 
 
 eating with us ; and, in the same way, they for- 
 bad our entering the town, for they said, " You 
 are our honoured guests, and must not be troubled 
 with anything; all you want, we will bring you." 
 But these honeyed words were mere phrases; 
 they certainly brought us a sheep, bread, and 
 fruit daily, but here their hospitality ended. All 
 that could interest us, or advance the objects of 
 our journey, was denied us ; and we were not 
 allowed to know anything beyond the gate of our 
 enclosure. To all our questions as to the town of 
 Korla, the number of its inhabitants, their trade, 
 the features of the surrounding country, &c., we 
 received the curtest replies, or absolute false- 
 hoods ; and this continued during the whole of 
 our six months' stay in the dominions of Yakub 
 Beg, or, " Badaulat," i. e. the happy one, as he is 
 termed by his subjects. Nor was it until after- 
 wards on the Tarim and Lob-nor, that we suc- 
 ceeded in occasionally ehciting some information 
 in a quiet way from the inhabitants, who, though 
 generally well disposed, feared showing their feel- 
 ings. From the people on the Tarim, we learned 
 that Korla and its neighbouring district numbers 
 about six thousand inhabitants of both sexes. 
 The town itself consists of two parts, each sur- 
 rounded with mud walls : the old commercial 
 town, and the new fort occupied only by troops, 
 of whom very few were left at the time of our 
 visit, most of them having departed for Toksum, 
 
 E 2 
 
52 TBAVELS TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 where Yakub Beg was superintending the erection 
 of fortifications, to protect himself against the 
 Chinese. 
 
 The day following our arrival at Korla one of 
 Badaulat's personal suite, a certain Zaman Beg, 
 formerly a Russian subject, born at Nukha ' in 
 Trans-Caucasia, and probably of Armenian ex- 
 traction, paid ns a visit. Having been actually at 
 one time in the Russian service he spoke Russian 
 fluently, and at once informed us that he had been 
 sent by Badaulat to accompany us to Lob-nor — a 
 piece of news that disconcerted us not a little, 
 for I well knew that he was sent as a spy on 
 our movements, and that, his presence would be 
 rather embarrassing than otherwise. Zaman Beg 
 was, however, personally disposed to be friendly, 
 and showed us all the attentions he could, for 
 which I cannot be too grateful. Indeed, we got 
 on better with him at Lob-nor than with any 
 other of Yakub Beg's ofl&cials. 
 
 We left Korla for Lob-nor on the 4th of 
 November, Besides the members of our own 
 party the caravan included Zaman Beg, his ser- 
 vants, and a hadji. Hardly had we started than 
 our companions showed us how disagreeable they 
 
 " [Nukha rose to be a place of some note about the middle of 
 the eighteenth century, when it was the capital and place of 
 residence of the khans of Shekin, who are reported to have 
 turned back Nadir Shah's victorious army. In 1805 Nukha 
 was taken by the Eussian general Nebolsin, and finally 
 annexed by Eussia in 1819. — M.] 
 
UNDBE SUEVBILLANCB. 53 
 
 could make themselves. In order to prevent us 
 seeing tlie town they led us by a circuitous path 
 across the fields and were bare-faced enough to 
 assure us that there was no better road. How- 
 ever, there was no help for it but to feign igno- 
 rance, as we also did on many subsequent occa- 
 sions, however distasteful such a line of conduct 
 was to persons like ourselves engaged in scien- 
 tific inquiries of the highest importance. They 
 suspected and deceived us at every step ; the 
 inhabitants were forbidden to hold any intercourse 
 with or even to speak to us. We were in fact 
 under surveillance, and our escort nothing but 
 spies. Zaman Beg evidently felt the irksomeness 
 of the situation at times, but he could not alter 
 his demeanour towards us. Eventually at Lob- 
 nor, when they became tired of watching us, their 
 former distrust wore off a little, but at first the 
 police inspection was of the strictest, and not a 
 week passed but that a coiirier arrived either from 
 Badaulat or the.Tokhsabai " to inquire after our 
 well-being," as Zaman Beg naively expressed it. 
 
 Everything tended to show that our journey to 
 
 Lob-nor did not please Yakub Beg, though he could 
 
 *not refuse General Kaiiffmann, and a, quarrel with 
 
 Russia on the eye of a war with China would have 
 
 been impolitic on his part. 
 
 Probably with the view of inducing us to 
 renounce our further journey, they led us to the 
 Tarim by the most difl&cult road, obliging us to 
 
54 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 cross two large and deep streams — the Konclieli 
 and Inchikeh-daria — by swimming. Reference to 
 tlie map will show how easily we might have kept 
 along the right bank of the former without having 
 to cross it twice unnecessarily. We could only 
 suppose that they wished to exaggerate the diffi- 
 culties of the route by obliging us to swim in 
 frosty weather with the thermometer at 4° Fahr. 
 at sunrise. The crossing of both these streams 
 was satisfactorily accomplished, though the camels 
 suffered seriously from their cold-water bath, and 
 when our guides convinced themselves of the 
 hopelessness of their attempts to thwart us, they 
 set to work and constructed rafts and landing- 
 stages at the crossings. 
 
 Before reaching Lake Lob we had to march 
 due south and strike the valley of the Tarim at a 
 point eighty-six versts distant from Korla. 'For 
 some way the country has the appearance of an 
 undulating plain covered with a pebbly or gravelly 
 soil, and totally devoid of vegetation, forming a 
 belt twenty to twenty-five versts wide, more or less, 
 running parallel to and at the foot of the Kurugh- 
 tagh, a low, waterless, and barren range forming 
 the last arm of the Tian Shan in the direction of 
 the Lob-nor desert. This range, as we are told, 
 rises on the southern shore of Lake Bagarash, and 
 after continuing for nearly two hundred versts to 
 the east of Korla merges in the low clay or sand 
 hillocks of the desert. 
 
DESEET OF LOB. 65 
 
 Beyond tlie stony margin lying next to the 
 mountains, and as it appears to me distinctly 
 defining the shore-line of an ancient sea, lies the 
 boundless expanse of the Tarim and Lob-nor 
 deserts. Here the soil is loose saline loam or 
 drift-sand -remarkable for the absence of organic 
 life. The Lob-nor desert is indeed the wildest 
 and most barren of all the deserts I have seen, 
 surpassing in this respect even that of Ala-shan.-' 
 But before proceeding to a more detailed de- 
 scription of these places, I will briefly sketch the 
 hydrography of the Lower Tarim. 
 
 As already stated, on our road from Korla to 
 the south we had to cross two streams of con- 
 siderable size — the Koncheh-daria ^ and Inchikeh- 
 daria. The first of these flows out of Lake Ba- 
 garash, forces its way through the last spur of 
 the Tian Shan near Korla, and after taking a 
 slight bend to the south, flows in a south-easterly 
 direction, and falls into the Kiok-ala-daria, an arm 
 of the Tarim. Owing to the velocity of their cur- 
 rent and the loose clay soil through which they pass, 
 the Koncheh-daria as well as the Tarim and all 
 its arms and tributaries have worn for themselves 
 deep trough-like channels. The width of the 
 Koncheh-daria where we crossed it for the second 
 
 ' For a description of Ala-shan see the author's last work, 
 Mongolia, &a vol. i. ch. vi. 
 
 ' Incorrectly marked on existing maps, both as to name and 
 direction. 
 
66 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE, 
 
 time is fifty to seventy feet; depth ten to fourteen, 
 and even more in places. Less tlian ten versts to 
 the south of the Koncheh-daria, the Inchikeh- 
 daria lay across our road ; the latter river after a 
 short course to the east loses itself in salt-marshes, 
 perhaps uniting with the Koncheh at high water. 
 After many inquiries we ascertained the Inchikeh 
 to be an arm of the Ugen-daria, which falls into 
 the Tarim close by, after rising in the Muzart and 
 flowing past the towns of Bai and Sairam. In 
 the meridian of the town of Bugur an arm sepa- 
 rates from the Ugen-daria, uniting with the Tarim 
 on the right, and a little further down the In- 
 chikeh-daria branches off to the left. 
 
 "We struck the Tarim at the point where it is 
 joined by the Ugen-daria with a stream 56 to 70 
 feet wide. The Tarim itself is here a considerable 
 river from 350 to 400 feet wide, with a depth of 
 not less than twenty feet. Its water is clear and 
 stream very rapid. The river flows in one chan- 
 nel, and at this point reaches its furthest northing; 
 hence it continues in a south-easterly course, then 
 almost due south and before finally emptying into 
 Lob-nor debouches in Lake Kara-buran. The 
 natives rarely make use of the name Tarim in 
 speaking of this river, which is more generally 
 known as the Yarkand-Tarim or Yarkand-daria, 
 after its principal feeder the river of Yarkand. 
 The name Tarim, as we were told, is derived 
 from " tara," i. e. field, owing to the circumstance 
 
HTDROGEAPHT OP LOWER TAEIM. 67 
 
 of the water of this river in its upper course 
 being mostly utilized to irrigate tlie fields. 
 
 Fifty versts below the mouth of the Ugen-daria 
 a large arm, the Kiok-ala-daria (about 150 feet 
 wide) separates from the Tarim and flows in an 
 independent channel for about 130 versts before 
 reuniting with the parent river. Into this arm 
 flows the Koncheh-daria from the north. 
 
 "With the exception of the Kiok-ala-daria the 
 Tarim has no important subsidiary channels in 
 its lower course, and is mostly contained in one 
 channel. Along its banks to the right and left 
 of its course are scattered marshes and lakes. 
 These are for the most part artificially formed 
 by the natives for purposes of fishing and pas- 
 turage — reeds being the only food for cattle in 
 this wretched country. The river itself assists 
 in the irrigation of its own valley. Fine sand 
 and dust driven by the wind-storms prevalent in 
 spring are caught and retained by the trees,, 
 bushes, and cane-brake growing on the banks, so 
 as gradually to raise their level above that of the 
 adjacent land, which is constantly diminishing^ 
 under the influence of the same causes. Hence 
 it becomes only necessary to bore through the bank 
 for the water to pour out of the river and inun- 
 date a more or less extensive tract of plain. With 
 the water come fish, and in a little while reeds^ 
 begin to grow. After a time the channel gets 
 silted up, the lake grows shallower, the fish are 
 
58 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 easily taken, and tlie recently submerged land 
 aiFords pasturage for sheep. "When the reeds are 
 all fed off", the operation is repeated, and a fresh 
 supply of fish and pasturage obtained. 
 
 The general character of the Lower Tarim is 
 very much as we have described it. Along the 
 right bank and not far from the river lie bare 
 hillocks of drift-sand twenty to sixty feet high. 
 These sandy wastes continue the whole way down 
 the Tarim to its confluence with Lake Kara-buran, 
 then up the Cherchen-daria in a south-westerly 
 direction, almost as far as the town of Keria, 
 and a long way up the Tarim from the mouth of 
 the TJgen-daria. Indeed the whole country be- 
 tween the right bank of the Tarim on the one 
 side to the oases at the foot of the Kuen-lun on 
 the other is described to be filled with drift-sand 
 and positively uninhabitable. 
 
 On the left bank of the Tarim the sands are 
 much less frequent and not nearly so extensive. 
 Here the soil consists of loose saline clay in some 
 places entirely bare, in others again overgrown 
 with rare bushes of tamarisk and ©ccasionally 
 patches of Haloxylon. These plants bind the 
 yielding soil with their roots, the intervals being 
 subjected to the full force of the wind, which 
 accumulates the drift round the bushes so as 
 gradually to form a hillock seven to fourteen feet 
 high beneath each of them ; and such hillocks cover 
 vast areas, as they do in Ordos and Alashan. 
 
BAEEEN country; olbastees. 69 
 
 On the banks of the Tarim itself, as well as on 
 its arms and tributaries, vegetation is somewhat 
 more varied, though scanty in the extreme. First 
 of all, in the narrow wooded belt we notice the 
 poplar {Populus diversifolia) a crooked tree attain- 
 ing a height of between twenty-five to thirty-five 
 feet, with an almost invariably hollow trunk from 
 one to three feet thick ; the oleaster in small 
 quantities ; the Halimodendron, Asclejpias, and two 
 other kinds of bushes of the bean family, covering 
 vast areas, whilst tall cane-brake and Tyjplia ob- 
 struct the lakes and marshes on both banks of the 
 Tarim, and as a rarity, wild pea and Astragalus, 
 with two or three representatives of the genus 
 GompositcB growing here and there on the damper 
 ground. These complete the list of plants of the 
 Tarim and Lob-nor.^ No meadows, no grass, not 
 a vestige of a flower is here to be seen. 
 
 It would indeed be difficult to picture to one- 
 self a more desolate landscape ; the poplar woods, 
 with their bare soil, covered only in autumn with 
 fallen leaves parched and shrivelled with the dry 
 heat, ■ withered branches and prostrate trees 
 encumbering the ground, cane-brake crackling 
 under foot, and saline dust ready to envelope you 
 
 ' Moreover the pop]ar and elseagnus only grow along tte 
 Tarim, not on Lob-nor. [Henderson remarks that the latter 
 is one of the most common trees in Yarkand, where it is cul- 
 tivated as a tall hedge and for its fruit along roadsides. (^Lahore 
 to Yarlcand, p. 335). The name is derived from iXaia, an olive, 
 the tree having a striking resemblance to an olive-tree. — M.] 
 
60 TEAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 from every bough, fhat you brusli aside from your 
 path.* Now, again, you come to acres of dead 
 poplars, with broken boughs, shorn of their bark, 
 lifeless trunks never decaying, but crumbling 
 away by degrees, to be hidden in layers of sand. 
 
 But cheerless as these woods are, the neigh- 
 bouring desert is even more dreary. Nothing 
 can exceed the monotony of the scenery. Which- 
 ever way you turn, an ill-favoured plain meets 
 your eye, covered with what seem to be large 
 mounds, but which, are really hillocks of clay sur- 
 mounted by tamarisk, between which the path 
 winds, every surrounding object shut out from 
 sight, and even the distant hills barely visible in 
 blue outline through the dusty vapour which fills 
 the atmosphere like fog. Not a bird, not an 
 animal, nothing but the occasional tracks of the 
 timid gazelle. 
 
 * The poplars are so saturated witli salt that on breaking a 
 bough a saline incrustation may be seen on the wood. 
 
FAUNA OF TARIM. 61 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Fauna of Tarim — Avi-fauna— New species — Inhabitants of 
 Tarim — Rude dwellings — Details of population — Dress of 
 the people — Cloth manufacture — Habits, pursuits, and 
 diet — Position of their women — Peculiarities and failings — 
 Eoute continued — Observations for altitude — Natives are 
 suspicious — Airilgan ferry — Climate — Village of Chargalyk 
 — Cherchen, Nai, andKeria — Euins of Lob — Starovertsi — 
 Start for Altyn-tagb — Description of these mountains — 
 Mountainous system — Fauna of Altyn-tagh — Hardships 
 — Eeturn to Lob. 
 
 Let us now turn to tlie animal kingdom. It may 
 be seen from the preceding brief sketch, that the 
 basin of the Lower Tarim and Lake Lob contain 
 little for the support of mammalia. Of these we 
 give a complete list in the appendix, and merely 
 remark here that this country is in general as 
 deficient in the variety, as it is in the number of 
 its mammals. Wild boar and hares excepted, all 
 other animals are comparatively few, and some 
 very scarce. This fauna, too, has no distinguish- 
 ing feature, for, excepting the wild camel, most of 
 the animals are also found in the Tian Shan, 
 whilst the remainder are common to the deserts of 
 Central Asia generally. 
 
 Neither is the country we are describing rich 
 in birds, although one might have supposed that 
 
62 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 the woods and warm climate in tlie Tarim valley 
 would have attracted many to winter here. Their 
 absence, however, may be accounted for by the 
 want of food, for, with the exception of oleaster, 
 and even this in comparatively small quantities, 
 there is not a single bush or herb with edible 
 seeds. Fish, moUusca, and other small animals 
 common to lakes and marshes, are beyond the 
 reach of birds in winter. This is why neither 
 waterfowl nor wading birds ' winter on the Tarim ; 
 birds of prey are also scarce, and only one song- 
 ster appears in any number in winter, viz. the 
 black-throated thrush^ (Turdus atrigularis) ; of the 
 ColumhidoB we observed three kinds in winter, not 
 on the Tarim, however, but at Chargalyk, forty 
 versts to the S. B. of Lake Kara-buran. 
 
 Most of the birds, of which a list will be found 
 in the Appendix, were also observed by us in the 
 valley of the Kaidu and near the town of Korla. 
 Besides these we found Gorvus frugilegus, G. 
 
 ' Id the end of November, however, we met with single 
 specimens of Carlo cormoranus, Anas clypeata, Harelda glacialis, 
 Larus irunneiceplialus, but these had probably been left behind 
 by their fellows, and perhaps would have taken their departure 
 later, \Besides these in Lob-nor itself, as the natives informed us, 
 Sotaii.rus stellaris, and Cygnus olor occasionally winter amongst 
 the reeds where the frost does not penetrate. 
 
 ^ [Blanford found the black-throated thrush, common in 
 Baluchistan in winter, as well as in the " miserable apologies for 
 gardens at Gwadar, one of the most desolate of inhabited spots 
 on the earth's surface." — (Cf. Eastern Persia, vol. ii., zoology, p. 
 158.)— M.] 
 
AVI-FADNA. 63 
 
 monedula, Goturnix communis, Gynchravius polaris, 
 Coluviha rupestris, Perdix daurica, Gaccabis chuhar, 
 tlie three last named being peculiar to the moun- 
 tains. Many more birds must, in my opinion, 
 winter in the oases at the foot of the Tian Shan, 
 where food is more abundant than on the Tarim 
 and Lob-nor. 
 
 Of the forty-eight varieties of birds observed in 
 winter on the Tarim, two are new species. Of 
 these one named by me, Bhojpojphilus deserti, was 
 also seen during my last expedition to Tsaidam. 
 Having on that occasion only obtained two or 
 three specimens, I decided not to form a separate 
 species, but to call them a variety of Bhopophilus 
 pehinensis Swinh. var. major. But now that I am 
 convinced from a number of specimens of the con- 
 stant recurrence of certain marks (greater size 
 and pale-coloured plumage) distinguishing the 
 Central Asian bird from its Chinese congener, I 
 have distinguished it as a new species, under the 
 name of " deserti," for it is characteristic of the 
 desert, and is neither found north of the Tian Shan, 
 nor in Russian Turkestan. 
 
 Another very interesting novelty among the 
 birds of the Tarim, is a new Podoces. Hitherto 
 we only knew of three species' of this sub-genus. 
 A fourth has now been added, which I have 
 named Podoces tarimensis.* The new Podoces 
 
 " Podoces Panderi, P. Hendersoni, P. humilis. 
 
 * I. e. of or belonging to the Tarim, where it was first (lis- 
 
64 TEAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 does not differ in its habits from tlie closely-allied 
 P. Hendersoni,^ and its range does not extend to 
 the north of the Tian Shan, or into Russian 
 Turkestan. 
 
 Of fish, only two kinds are known in the Tarim 
 as well as in Lob-nor itself ; the Marcena, and 
 another (of the carp family) strange to me.* 
 Both are very numerous, especially the former, 
 and they constitute the chief sustenance of the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Population is first met on descending the 
 Tarim, at the mouth of the Ugen-daria; for 
 administrative purposes the people are divided 
 into two districts — the Tarimtsi or Kara-Kultsi,' 
 and the Lobnortsi proper or Kara-Kurchintsi.' 
 Let us say a few words concerning the former ; 
 we shall speak of the Kara-Kurchintsi later, in 
 describing Lob-nor. 
 
 covered, and to the basin of which river it appears exclusively to 
 belong. [Since I began this translation, Col. Prejevalsky has 
 informed me that the new species of Podoces mentioned in the 
 text, has been identified as P. JBiddulphii, discovered during Sir 
 D. Forsyth's expedition to Kashgar. — M.] 
 
 ^ [This bird appears to bear a closer resemblance to the 
 chough than to any other, and Shaw said that they were good 
 eating. See Lahore to Yarhand, p. 244. — M.] 
 
 ° We have several excellent specimens of Lob-nor and Tarim 
 fish in our collection. 
 
 ' After Lake Kara-Kul, near which lives an akhoond who 
 governs the people on the Lower Tarim. 
 
 " More correctly Kara-Koshuntsi from the word Kara- 
 Koshun, i.e. black district or quarter. 
 
INHABITANTS OF TARIM. 65 
 
 We were informed that the present inhabitants 
 on the Tarim originally lived at Lake Lob ; but 
 that a hundred years ago, owing to a scarcity of 
 fish, and Kalmuk raids, they became dispersed 
 along the banks of the Tarim. We could not 
 ascertain whether, in earlier times, this river's 
 banks were inhabited; one thing, however, is 
 certain, that fugitives, and perhaps exiles, from 
 different parts of Eastern Turkestan, were con- 
 tinually intermixing with the settlers from Lake 
 Lob. Hence the Tarimtsi of the present day, 
 originally doubtless of the Aryan race, have a 
 curiously mixed type of features, and among them 
 may be seen the physiognomy of Sarts, Kirghizes, 
 and even Tangutans ; now and then a thoroughly 
 European face will attract your attention, or one 
 characteristic of the Mongohan. 
 
 These natives are in general all remarkable for 
 the pallor of their complexions, for their hollow 
 chests and weak frames. The men are of average 
 height, many even tall ; the women (whom we 
 rarely saw) are of smaller stature. 
 
 If we happened to enter one of their dwellings 
 — the fair sex, married and single, invariably took 
 to flight, disappearing like mice through the 
 crevices of their reed walls. 
 
 Our companion, Zaman Beg, having had more 
 opportunities of seeing and studying the ladies on 
 the Tarim, spoke in terms the reverse of flattering 
 of their beauty. One fair one he did except from 
 
66 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE, 
 
 his category, and she came from the village of 
 Akhtarma, and was described as presenting a 
 striking anomaly among her black-haired and 
 dark-eyed countrywomen. She may probably 
 have been a memento of the visit of some Russian 
 starovertsi in 1862, of whom we shall say some- 
 thing presently. 
 
 As to the language, I can only say that our 
 interpreter, a Taranchi from Kulja, had no difl&- 
 culty in making himself understood on all parts 
 of the Tarim and Lob-nor. Hence it may be 
 inferred that the distinction between the Taranchi 
 and Sart languages on the one hand, and the dia- 
 lect spoken by the natives of these parts on the 
 other is slight. Being myself ignorant of any of 
 these forms of speech, I was unable personally to 
 make any observations upon them, and the inter- 
 preter was too stupid to assist me. 
 
 The religion of all these people is Moham- 
 medan, with a slight admixture of heathenish 
 rites. For instance, they always bury their dead 
 in canoes, and dispose the fishing-nets of the 
 deceased round his grave. 
 
 Their dwelling-places are made of reeds which 
 grow in abundance on the marshes and lakes of 
 the Tarim valley. These habitations are con- 
 structed in the most primitive fashion. Round, 
 rough poplar poles are first driven into the 
 ground at the corners and sides ; to these are~ 
 fastened cross-beams and rods to support the 
 
fiUDE DWELLINGS. 67 
 
 ceiling. The sides are covered witli reeds fastened 
 in some way together, and the ceiling is also of 
 the same material, a square hole being left for the 
 escape of smoke. In the centre of this apartment 
 stands the fireplace ; along the walls, on mats of 
 felt or reed, the master and his family sleep, 
 separate quarters being in some cases reserved 
 for the women. On shelves fastened to the walls, 
 are disposed the domestic utensils, &c. Close 
 beside the habitation is an enclosure also of reeds 
 for the cattle. Ten or more of such houses com- 
 pose the village, which is not always stationary, 
 for in winter they live wherever food for cattle 
 and fuel are most abundant, whilst in summer 
 they are dispersed over the lake for the purpose 
 of fishing. But their chief motive in removing 
 their villages to new sites is to avoid sickness ; 
 small-pox is especially dreaded, for it almost 
 invariably terminates fatally. Any one falling ill 
 of this complaint is abandoned to his fate; a 
 little food is left by the side of the sick man, and 
 the whole village decamps to another place, with- 
 out further thought for their deserted brother. 
 If he recover, which seldom happens, he returns 
 to his relatives ; in the contrary event, nobody 
 troubles himself to bury him. Such of the graves 
 as we saw were marked with long poles, decorated 
 with coloured rags, deers' horns, wild yak tails, &c.' 
 
 ' The wild yak inhabits the mountains to the south of Lob- 
 
68 
 
 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 The inhabitants on the Lower Tarim number 
 1200 of both sexes. The following is a list of 
 their villages,' with details of population : — 
 
 Villages. 
 
 Houses. 
 
 Men. 
 
 Women. 
 
 Children. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Kutmet-kul .... 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 14 
 
 18 
 
 42 
 
 Akhtarma 
 
 
 
 
 
 35 
 
 103 
 
 120 
 
 88 
 
 311 
 
 Taiz-kul . 
 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 47 
 
 52 
 
 34 
 
 133 
 
 Kara-kyr . 
 
 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 38 
 
 30 
 
 40 
 
 108 
 
 Kiok-ala . 
 
 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 93 
 
 109 
 
 61 
 
 263 
 
 Markat . 
 
 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 58 
 
 49 
 
 61 
 
 168 
 
 Uiman-kul 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 56 
 
 Ehni-su . 
 
 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 38 
 
 23 
 
 30 
 
 91 
 
 Airilgan . 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 Total 
 
 
 
 
 
 136 
 
 413 
 
 419 
 
 352 
 
 L184 
 
 The dress of the Tarimtsi consists of a camel's 
 hair coat and trousers, a long shirt underneath, 
 and a sheepskin cloak in winter, — a few, but 
 these are exceptions, and only the most pros- 
 perous, wear the khalat and turban. The rich 
 have shoes, the poor — sandals of their own make, 
 fastened over felt stockings in winter ; in summer 
 their feet are bare. Their head-dress in winter is 
 a lambskin cap turned up at the brim, in summer 
 a felt hat. 
 
 The women wear a short khalat with girdle like 
 
 ' The villages are here given in regular order, beginning 
 from the mouth of the Ugen-daria, and descending the Tarim to 
 Lake Kara-buran. 
 
DEESS OF THE PEOPLE; CLOTH. 69 
 
 that of the men, but unlike these, they always 
 leave it unfastened; underneath is a shirt; the 
 trousers are tucked into boots like men's. Their 
 head-dress is also a far cap, beneath which is 
 a white cloth flowing over the back, two ends 
 ■ being frequently tied under the chin. The men 
 shave the entire head ; the women braid their 
 back hair into two tresses, allowing the front 
 locks to fall half way down the cheeks, and keep- 
 ing them cut to this length. Unmarried girls 
 have only one tress behind. They obtain most of 
 their wearing apparel and domestic utensils from 
 the Korla merchants; some are of home make. 
 The cloth is prepared from sheep's wool, or the 
 fibre of the Asclepias plant, growing in abundance 
 in the Tarim valley. In autumn and winter they 
 collect the withered stalks of this plant, and after 
 beating it with sticks, or with the hand, in order 
 to separate the fibre, they boil it in water, cleanse 
 and boil it a second time ; after which it undergoes 
 thfi final process of combing. The distaff used 
 for spinning is of a peculiar kind, and the yarn 
 thus obtained is woven, by means of a primitive 
 loom and shuttle, into cloth of a very durable 
 texture, not inelegantly decorated. 
 
 This cloth-manufacture and the preparation of 
 wild beasts' skins are their only industry, although 
 blacksmiths and bootmakers are occasionally found 
 among them. 
 
 Their chief occupation is fishing, and fish con- 
 
70 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 stitutes clieir staple food. The nets they use are 
 small and coarsely made. We shall describe their 
 mode of fishing later, siijQ&ce it to say here that 
 their lives are mostly passed on the water, and 
 that they are expert in the management of their 
 canoes, both men and women excelling in the art. 
 The canoes are made of hollowed poplar-trees, 
 and form an indispensable adjunct to every house- 
 hold. Their fish diet is varied by Asclepias root, 
 roasted on the fire and eaten instead of bread — 
 the latter being a delicacy reserved only for the 
 very few rich among them. Agriculture is very 
 backward on the Lower Tarim, and was only intro- 
 duced here, as we heard, about ten years ago. 
 Before sowing, the soil has to be irrigated by 
 artificial dykes. "Wheat and barley in small 
 quantities are sown, but the harvest is never par- 
 ticularly good, owing to the saline nature of the 
 soil. Cattle rearing is more general than agri- 
 culture. Sheep are the principal domestic 
 animals, and yield an excellent fleece ; but they 
 are small, and of the fat-tailed kind; horned 
 cattle of a fine, large breed, a few horses, and 
 asses are also kept. Of camels there are none, 
 the locality disagreeing with them. The reeds 
 we have already mentioned are the only fodder 
 for cattle, but sheep greedily devour besides the 
 stalks of a prickly bush. 
 
 With regard to the moral side of the inhabitants 
 of the Tarim, their chief characteristic, as with 
 
POSITION OF women; peculiarities. 71 
 
 Asiatics in general, is laziness ; and, next to this, 
 dissimulation and suspicion ; fanaticism does not 
 run tiigli here, and their family life is probably the 
 same as that of other Turkestanis. The wife is 
 mistress of her household, but at the same time 
 her husband's slave, and he may turn her out 
 whenever he chooses and take another, or keep 
 several wives at a time. Marriage may be con- 
 tracted for the shortest period, even though only 
 for a few days. Their most peculiar habit is that 
 of talking loudly, and with great rapidity of utter- 
 ance; so much so, that on hearing them con- 
 versing with one another, a stranger might 
 suppose that they were quarrelling. Their ex- 
 pression of astonishment is by smacking their lips, 
 and exclaiming " Toba, Toba." For administra- 
 tive purposes these people, together with the Lob- 
 nortsi, are under the governor of Korla, to whom 
 they pay taxes. 
 
 To return to our narrative, after this long 
 digression. Having crossed, in the way we have 
 described, the Koncheh and Inchikeh rivers, we 
 struck the Tarim at the point of its confluence 
 with the Ugen-daria, whence another day's march 
 brought us to Akhtarma,^ the largest of aU the 
 settlements on the Tarim and Lob-nor, and the 
 residence of Akhoond Aehliam, governor of Tarim, 
 
 ^ Not far from this village, on the opposite side of the Tarim, 
 lies Lalte Kara-kul, which has given its name to the inhabitants 
 of the Tarim valley. 
 
72 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 who, notwithstanding his high-sounding title, signi- 
 fying, as Zaman Beg informed ns, "most learned of 
 men," is quite ilhterate. Here we halted eight days, 
 and took astronomical observations for longitude 
 and barometrical measurements of altitude, finding 
 the latter to be 2500 feet ' above sea-level. The 
 height of Lake Lob is 2200 feet, and therefore 
 the fall of the Tarim, notwithstanding its rapid 
 stream averaging three feet per second,^ is only 
 slight. 
 
 From Akhtarma our road lay down the Tarim, 
 now approaching its bank, now retreating to some 
 distance from it. There is no valley in our sense 
 of the word ; neither the configuration nor quality 
 of the soil changes even on the very bank of the 
 river. The same loamy plain, the same drift-sand 
 as in the desert, continue to within a hundred 
 paces of the water. The very limited belt of irri- 
 gated land ' is only denoted by the marginal belts 
 of trees, thick reeds in some places, or marshes 
 and lakes in others. Travelling here with camels 
 is extremely difficult, for you have to pass now 
 through woods, or thick, prickly jungle ; now 
 
 " Korla is 2600 feet above sea-level. 
 
 * I take the mean of two measurements, one early in Decem- 
 ber below tbe mouth of the Kiok-ala-daiia, the other in March 
 near Lake Lob. The former gave 3 '2 per second, the latter 
 2-83. 
 
 ' The valley of the Tarim, however, from the mouth of the 
 Ugen-daria to the village of Akhtarma is distinctly defined ; it 
 is five or six versts wide, and marshy almost throughout. 
 
SUSPICIONS OP NATIVES. 73 
 
 througli withered canebrake, wliose roots, as hard 
 as iron, lacerate the camel's hoofs till they bleed. 
 
 After crossing the Kiok-ala-daria, an arm of 
 the Tarim, by means of a raft, we continued to 
 make short marches, halting generally near the 
 villages. Zaman Beg and his suite never left us 
 at first ; but at length, having convinced them- 
 selves that we had no particular object in view, 
 they would generally ride forward to the next 
 halting-place. 
 
 The inhabitants on our line of march had 
 evidently been instructed to deceive us in every- 
 thing that we could not see for ourselves ; and 
 never before having set eyes on Russians, about 
 whom they had probably heard marvellous tales, 
 they fled as though we had the plague, and to the 
 very last suspected us of dishonesty, seeing that 
 we, " the valued guests " of their ruler, were 
 treated as spies, and led by circuitous roads in 
 charge of an escort ; their suspicions too were 
 heightened, owing to their not understanding the 
 object of our journey. Just as it happened to us 
 in Mongolia and Kansuh, so now on the Tarim, 
 the semi-barbarous natives could not believe it 
 possible that we should undergo the hardships of 
 travel, spend money, sacrifice camels, &c., merely 
 for the sake of seeing a new country, collecting 
 plants and skins, &c., objects which from their 
 point of view were good for little, if not absolutely 
 worthless. Animated by this spirit, the eagerness 
 
74 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 of the Tarimtsi to deceive us often went beyond 
 all bounds, and became cMdish and silly. 
 
 The only person who would tell us the truth 
 was Zaman Beg. But his knowledge of the 
 language was deficient, and he was often the dupe 
 of the natives, who suspected him of being friendly 
 to the Russians. 
 
 The sheep supplied to us during the march 
 were taken from the inhabitants, and nothing 
 would induce them to accept payment. As some 
 return for these acts of spoliation, I caused 100 
 roubles to be distributed among the poor of Lob- 
 nor. On the Tarim, however, positive orders had 
 been given not to take money, and the Akhoond 
 of the district assured me that he had no poor. 
 
 After marching 190 versts down the Tarim from 
 the mouth of the TJgen-daria, we reached the place 
 where the Kiok-ala-daria reunites with the main 
 stream. Here we crossed the Tarim a second time 
 on a raft, at a place called Airilgan, where the 
 river is 100 feet wide, and 21 feet deep.* After 
 receiving the Kiok-ala-daria, the Tarim again 
 increases, its width being between 210 and 245 feet, 
 these continue to be its dimensions until it dis- 
 charges into Lake Kara-buran. Fifteen versts 
 above its outflow into the lake, a small square 
 mud fort (Kurgan) has been erected on the right 
 
 ° At Airilgan ferry a boat capsized, turning one of the Cos- 
 sacks and me into the river. Fortunately' we swam ashore and 
 escaped with a ducking (10th December). 
 
CLIMATE. VILLAGE OP CHARGALYK. 75 
 
 bank; in this, at the time of our journey, there 
 were only a few soldiers from Korla. 
 
 During the whole of our progress down the 
 Tarim, i. e. during the whole of November and part 
 of December, the weather was very fine, bright, 
 and warm. The night frosts were certainly as 
 severe as 7° Fahr. ; but no sooner did the sun ap- 
 pear than the temperature rose rapidly, and it was 
 not till the 19th December that the thermometer 
 stood below freezing point at midday. It was pro- 
 bably about this time that the Tarim froze, although 
 perhaps not entirely. Gales were of rare occur- 
 rence, but the air was excessively dry, and filled 
 with vapoury dust. Of atmospherical deposits 
 there were none, indeed the natives say that a 
 snowfall is a rare occurrence in this country, 
 happening perhaps once or twice in three or four 
 winters, and thawing rapidly ; rains, too, are very 
 unusual in summer. 
 
 From the above-mentioned mud fort we directed 
 our march, not towards Lob-nor, which was now 
 near, but due south to the village of Ohargalyk,' 
 founded thirty years ago by exiles and free emi- 
 grants fi'om Khoten. The village now consists 
 of twenty-one houses,' and a mud fort to contain 
 
 ' The reason of our not proceeding direct to Lob-nor was that 
 it suited our escort's convenience to winter at Chargalyk, 
 and we were again deceived by the assurance that there was no 
 road to Lob-nor. 
 
 ' Including nine houses of Lob-nortsi. 
 
76 TEAVELS TO LOB-NOB. 
 
 the exiles/ wto are compelled to cultivate tlie 
 land for Government, whilst the other inhabitants 
 reap their own crops. The water used in irri- 
 gating the soil is led from the Ohargalyk-daria, 
 which flows from the neighbouring Altyn-tagh 
 mountains, an elevated range south of Lob-nor. 
 
 Three hundred versts' to the south-west of Ohar- 
 galyk, and under one governor with it, stands 
 the small town of Oherchen,^ on a river of the 
 same name. Hence it is ten days' march in a 
 south-west direction to the oasis of Nai (900 
 houses), and three days' further to the town of 
 Keria, said to contain 3000 houses. From Keria 
 there is a road to Khotan, via Djira, all three 
 places being included in the territory of Kashgar. 
 
 One day's journey from Keria gold is obtained 
 in the mountains, and other gold-mines are situ- 
 ated five days' march from Cherchen, near the 
 sources of the Cherchen-daria. The quantity of 
 gold annually produced in these mines is said to 
 be about 19 cwt., which finds its way into Yakub 
 Beg's treasury. 
 
 On the site of the present village of Chargalyk, 
 remains of mud walls of an ancient city, called 
 Ottogush-shari,^ may be seen. These ruins are 
 
 " Numbering 114i of both sexes. 
 
 ' Eleven days caravan journey. 
 
 ' Is not this the Charchand of Marco Polo ? We were told 
 that Cherchen only contains thirty houses at present, but I can- 
 not vouch for the accuracy of this information. 
 
 ' I.e. the city of Ottogush, formerly Khan of this place. 
 
EUINS OP LOB. STAEOVERTSI. 1*1 
 
 reported to be two miles in circumference, and 
 watcli-towers stand in front of the principal wall. 
 Two days' journey from Chargalyk, in the 
 direction of Cherchen, the ruins of another ancient 
 city called Gas-shari are reported to exist ; and, 
 lastly, we discovered traces of a third very large 
 city near Lob-nor, at a place called merely Kunia- 
 shari* i. e. old town. We could learn of no 
 traditions among the inhabitants respecting any 
 of these ancient remains. Our inquiries as to the 
 recent visit of Russian starovertsi ^ to Lob-nor, led 
 to important results. Persons who had witnessed 
 the arrival of these strangers, who doubtless came to 
 this remote corner of Asia to seek for the promised 
 land of " Bielovodiye,'" said of them that the first 
 detachment to arrive at Lob-nor in 1861 numbered 
 altogether ten men. After prospecting the locahty 
 two of their number returned, and the following 
 year a more numerous party, consisting of 160 
 men and -women,^ appeared. They were all 
 mounted on horseback, and carried their effects 
 on pack-horses; most of the men were armed 
 with old-fashioned muskets, and a few understood 
 
 * [Col. Yule is of opinion that this must be the city of Lop or 
 Lob of Marco Polo and Mirza Haidar (see Marco Polo, ii. 201.) 
 — M.] 
 
 ' [Literally Old Believers ; they are dissenters from the 
 Eussian Greek Church, for some account of their sects, vide 
 chap. XX. of Wallace's Bussia. — M.] 
 
 " Some said there were only seventy Eussians, but the former 
 figure is most probably correct. 
 
78 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 hoTV to repair the guns, and even manufacture 
 new ones ; there were also carpenters and joiners 
 among them. They supplied themselves with 
 provisions by catching fish, and killing wild boar 
 by the way; but they strictly adhered to their 
 customs of eating no other food than that cooked 
 in their own utensils, and avoiding prohibited 
 meats.' They were described to be courageous 
 and persevering folk. Some of them settled on 
 the Lower Tarim, near the fort of the present day ; 
 here they built themselves reed huts, in which 
 they passed the winter. Others settled at Char- 
 galyk, where they built a wooden house, perhaps 
 intended to serve as a church, and this edifice has 
 been quite recently swept away by the floods on 
 the Cherchen river. 
 
 In the meanwhile a great many of the horses 
 of the Russians had perished — some during the 
 winter, and others on the journey, owing to the 
 difficulties of the road, improper food, and swarms 
 of mosquitoes. The immigrants were not pleased 
 with their newly adopted country, and on the 
 return of spring they decided on retracing their 
 steps or seeking a better fortune elsewhere. The 
 Chinese governor of Turfan, to whom Lob-nor 
 was then subject, gave orders to supply them 
 with the requisite horses and provisions ; and one 
 
 ' [For ecclesiastical system of Old Believers, see Duncan's 
 Russia, ii. 225, Herberstein in Haklnyt, vol ii., and supplemen- 
 tary note. — M.] 
 
START FOR THE ALTYN-TAGH. 79 
 
 of our escort, Raklimet Beg, was deputed to 
 conduct them back to Ushak-tala,^ situated on 
 the road from Kara-shahr to Turfan. On reaching 
 the last-named place the emigrants departed for 
 Urumtsi, and nothing has been since heard of 
 them, for the outbreak of the Dungan insurrection 
 interrupted communications with the trans-Tian- 
 Shan districts. This is all we could ascertain about 
 the starovertsi sometime resident at Lob-nor. 
 
 After a week's rest at Chargalyk, where I left 
 the greater part of my baggage in charge of three 
 Cossacks, I started with the three other Cossacks 
 and my assistant, F. L. Eklon, the day after 
 Christmas day, for the Altyn-tagh ° mountains to 
 hunt the wild camel, which according to the 
 unanimous testimony of the Lob-nortsi inhabits 
 these mountains and the deserts to the east of 
 them. Zaman Beg and his companions also re- 
 mained behind at Chargalyk. 
 
 Our caravan now consisted of only eleven 
 
 * [According to Route XVI. in the Geogr. Appendix to Capt. 
 Trotter's Report of the survey operations in E. Turkestan, 
 1873-74, Ushak-tal is the third stage from Kara-shahr, on the 
 road to Turfan, the route from Turfan to Urumtsi is also given 
 (ibid. Route XVII.)— M.] 
 
 ' [Col. Yule informs me that these mountains are described in 
 dry Chinese fashion, in the Chinese hydrography of the Kash- 
 gar basin, translated by Stan. Julien in the iV. Annales de 
 Voyages for 1846 (vol. iii.). They seem, however, to describe 
 the mountains as approaching within some twenty miles of the 
 Tarim-gol, which we gather from this notice of Prejevalsky is 
 not the case. — M.] 
 
80 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 camels and a riding-horse for me. Eklon bestrode 
 a camel. We took -with us a yurta [felt tent] 
 in case of severe cold, and provisions to last six 
 vsreeks. Our guides were two of the best hunters 
 of Lob-nor, in whose opinion hunting wild camels 
 in winter offered few chances of success. We 
 nevertheless decided upon trying our luck, for we 
 could not defer making the attempt till spring, 
 having other work to do then, such as observing 
 the flight of birds. 
 
 Let us first describe the Altyn-tagh Mountains. 
 This range is first seen from the Airilgan ferry, 
 upwards of 100 miles ofi", whence it appears as an 
 indistinct, narrow belt, hardly remarkable above 
 the horizon. After the wearisome monotony of 
 the Tarim valley and its adjacent desert, the 
 traveller greets with pleasure this range, which 
 gradually grows more distinct at the end of 
 each successive march. Not only are the peaks 
 distinguishable, but the principal ravines may also 
 be traced, and an experienced eye can even from a 
 great distance detect their relative height to be 
 very considerable. On arriving at Chargalyk the 
 Altyn-tagh appeared to us like a huge rampart 
 towering up even higher towards the south-west, 
 where it exceeded the hmit of the perpetual snow 
 fine. 
 
 We succeeded in exploring these mountains, 
 that is to say, their northern slopes, over an extent 
 of 300 versts east of Chargalyk. Throughout the 
 
ALTYN-TAQH RANGE. 81 
 
 wliole of this distance the Altyn-tagh. serves to 
 buttress a lofty plateau overhanging the Lob-nor 
 desert, and most probably forming the northern 
 limit of the Tibetan highlands ; at least this is what 
 the inhabitants gave us to understand, one and all 
 assuring us that the south-western prolongations 
 of the Altyn-tagh continued to margin the desert 
 uninterruptedly as far as the towns of Keria and 
 Khotan. According to the same informants this 
 range stretches a long way in an easterly direc- 
 tion, but where it terminates none could say. 
 
 In the central part of the range where we 
 explored it the topography is as follows : First, 
 from Chargalyk to the Djagansai rivulet it stands 
 like a, perpendicular wall above the barren, pebbly 
 plain, hardly if at aU above the level of Lake Lob. 
 Erom Djagansai to Kurgan-bulak rivulet (and 
 possibly even further east), that is to say, exactly 
 south of the lake, the plain rises in a steep but 
 gradual incline* to the foot of the mountains, 
 until (at Asganlyk spring) it attains an elevation 
 of 7700 feet above the sea. At Kurgan-bulak 
 and eastward to the rivulet Djaskansai lies a 
 confused network of low clay hills; east of 
 this again hillocks of drift-sand, known under the 
 name of Kum-tagh are reported to extend in a 
 broad belt far away to the east (probably skirting 
 the foot of the Altyn-tagh the whole way) to 
 within two marches of Sha-chau. 
 
 ' Average rise 120 feet in the verst. 
 
82 TllAVELS TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 On the side of the desert the Altyn-tagh throws 
 out spurs and branches separated from one 
 another by narrow valleys,^ a few of which attain 
 an elevation of 11,000 feet above sea-level. The 
 peaks shoot up about two or three thousand feet 
 higher, and this is probably the elevation of 
 the main axis of the range, the descent to the 
 table-land on the south being doubtless shorter, 
 as we gathered not only from the testimony 
 of our guides, but also from the general charac- 
 teristics of most of the mountain ranges of 
 Central Asia. 
 
 Although we were unable, owing to deep 
 winter which set in and want of time, to cross 
 to the other side of the Altyn-tagh, and 
 measure the altitudes to the south of it, there can 
 be no doubt of the plateau on that side being at 
 least 12,000 or 13,000 feet above sea-level. This, 
 at all events, may be inferred from the enormous 
 elevation of the valleys in the front terraces of 
 the range. Our guides, who had often hunted 
 on the other side of these mountains, informed 
 us that by going south along an old road, after 
 crossing the Altyn-tagh one arrives at a lofty 
 plain, fifty versts wide, bounded by a range 
 (twenty versts in width) having no specific name, 
 and beyond this again another plain, forty versts 
 wide, abounding in morasses fed by springs (sasi), 
 and confined on the south by a huge snowy 
 
 ' Ten versts long by four and five wide, and often less. 
 
MOUNTAIN-SYSTEM. 83 
 
 range, the Chamen-tagh, these two valleys with 
 their marginal ranges continuing far beyond the 
 eastern horizon, whilst on the west all three 
 — the Altyn-tagh, the unnamed, and the Chamen- 
 tagh — -unite not far from the town of Cherchen in 
 one snowy chain, Tuguz-daban, extending to the 
 towns of Keria and Khotan. 
 
 The natives distinguish under separate names 
 the two parts of the Altyn-tagh ; the mountains 
 nearest to the desert of Lob they call Astyn-tagh 
 (i. e. lower hills), those farthest removed from it 
 towards the axis of the range, TJstiun-tagh (i. e. 
 upper hills). 
 
 Clay, marls, sandstone, and limestone prevail 
 on the outer border of Altyn-tagh, porphyry is 
 not uncommon in the higher parts, but granite is 
 rare. Water is very deficient in these mountains, 
 even springs are rare, and in such as are to be met 
 with, the water is mostly of a bitter-saline flavour. 
 
 These hills are in general characterized by ex- 
 treme sterility, the scanty vegetation being con- 
 fined to the upper valleys and gorges, where two 
 or three kinds of the prevailing low, stunted, saline 
 plants, three or four of the order Gompositce, and 
 dwarf bushes of Potentilla, Ephedra, &c., may 
 be found. 
 
 As a rarity I occasionally saw withered blos- 
 soms of Statice and climbing Euonymus. Tama- 
 risk grows at the bottom of the ravines, reeds on 
 the damper ground (up to 9000 feet), here and 
 
 G 2 
 
84 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOB. 
 
 there may be seen dirisun, Galligomim and Nit- 
 raria, and in a few places poplar and wild rose ; 
 the latter, however, we only found in Asganlyk 
 ravine. Most of these plants also grow on the 
 border of the desert nearest to the mountains, 
 where the gnarled saksaul also appears. 
 
 It is remarkable that notwithstanding the 
 sterility of Altyn-tagh, locusts appear in such large 
 numbers that in the summer of 1876 they de- 
 voured all the fronds and young shoots of the 
 reeds for want of something better to eat, and 
 were actually found in the mountains at an ele- 
 vation of 9000 feet above the sea. 
 
 The ndrthern slope of Altyn-tagh is not rich in 
 animal life. We were told that wild beasts were 
 more numerous on the high plateau to the south 
 of the range, especially below, and in the midst of 
 the Chamen-tagh mountains. Here is a list of 
 the mammalia of Altyn-tagh : — 
 
 Felis irbis — very rare. 
 
 Weasel, Mustela intermedia ? — rare. 
 
 Wolves and foxes rather scarce ; the Tibetan 
 wolf (G. Ghanlco) is reported to be seen. 
 
 Hares common in valleys ; and distinct from 
 the Lob-nor species. 
 
 Meriones, sp. in valleys — rare. 
 
 Wild camel (Gamelus Bactrianus ferus) — rarely 
 appears. 
 
 Ovis Poll — rare. 
 
 Mountain sheep (Pseudo-Nahoor) — common. 
 
FAUNA OP ALTSN-TAGH. 85 
 
 Wild yak (Poephagus grunniens, ferus) — rare. 
 
 Wild ass (Equus Kiang) — rare. 
 
 Wild pig {Sus scrofa ferus) in valleys — rare. 
 
 Besides tlie above a species of marmot and 
 Hodgson's antelope are reported to frequent tlie 
 Chamen-tagli range.. 
 
 On comparing the above list with the mammalia 
 of the Tarim valley, it will be seen that ten kinds 
 inhabit the Altyn-tagh (together with the Chamen- 
 tagh) which are absent from the Tarim valley and 
 Lob-nor. Of these, the blue mountain sheep, 
 wild yak, and Hodgson's antelope,^ are peculiar 
 to Tibet, and here find the northern limit of their 
 range. 
 
 Of llirds there are only a few in the Altyn-tagh, 
 as in winter we found but eighteen kinds.* 
 
 The climate in winter is extremely rigorous, 
 and snow falls rarely; at all events on the 
 northern slopes. In summer, as we were told by 
 the hunters, rains and cold winds are of frequent 
 occurrence. 
 
 Besides hunters' tracks, there are two roads in 
 
 ' [For a description of these animals see Mongolia, by the 
 same author, English translation, vol. i. chap. vi. and vol. ii. 
 chap. vi. — M.] 
 
 * Qypaetus htwhatus, Vuliur cinereus, Qyps himalayensin, 
 Falco (Bsalon, Aquila fulva, Accentor fulvescens, Leptopciles 
 Sophiw, Turdus mystacinus, Linota montium, Erythrofpiza mceo- 
 golica, Garpodaeus ruhicilla, Corvus coram, Todoces BiddulpTiii 
 (up to 10,000 feet), Fregilus graculus, Otocoris albigula, Gacca- 
 bis chuhar, Megaloperdix sp., Scolopax hyemalis. 
 
86 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOK. 
 
 these mountains ; one leading from Lob-nor to 
 Tibet, the other to the town of Sha-chau, 
 neither of which are now used, the Kalmuks 
 having discontinued their pilgrimages to Tibet 
 since the outbreak of the Dungan insurrection. 
 By the Sha-chau road, however, a few years ago 
 some parties of Dungans succeeded in effecting 
 their escape from the Chinese, and it was by this 
 road that we pursued our journey to Chaglyk 
 spring ; beyond which our guides knew nothing 
 of the country. The path is marked at the passes 
 and at a few other places by piles of stones ; in all 
 probability it continues in the Altyn-tagh Moun- 
 tains for the rest of the way to Sha-chau, the 
 neighbouring desert being waterless. 
 
 For forty days ^ we marched at the foot of the 
 Altyn-tagh Mountains, and in the mountains 
 themselves, accomplishing a distance of exactly 
 500 versts ; but during the whole of this time we 
 only saw one wild camel,' and this we were unable 
 to kill. Of other large game we only bagged a 
 Kulan (wild ass) and a male yak. Upon the 
 whole, then, this excursion was most unsuccessful 
 and full of mishaps. At a great elevation, in mid- 
 winter, in the midst of an extremely barren coun- 
 try, we suffered most of all from scarcity of water 
 and frost (as severe as — 16° Fahr.). Fuel was also 
 
 ' From the 26th December to the 5th February. 
 ' I fired at this camel at 500 paces and missed him ; a memo- 
 rable miss for a sportsman. 
 
hardships; return to lob, 87 
 
 very scarce, and owing to the ill success of our 
 shooting parties we could not obtain a sufficient 
 supply of fresh meat, and had to live on hares for 
 some days. At the halting-places, the loose, 
 saline, clayey soil pulverized instantly, and covered 
 everything in our tent with a layer of dust. We 
 ourselves had been unable to wash for a whole 
 week, and could not endure our dirty condition, 
 our clothes too became saturated with dust, and 
 our linen of a dirty chocolate colour. In fact, we 
 were experiencing a repetition of last winter's 
 sufferings in Northern Tibet. 
 
 After a week's halt near Chaglyk ' spring, and 
 fixing its latitude and longitude, we decided on 
 returning to Lob-nor to observe the flight of 
 birds, which would soon take place. Two of our 
 guides were to return once more to the mountains 
 to seek for wild, camel, as it was indispensable 
 that we should procure a specimen at any cost. 
 As an additional incentive I offered a reward 
 of 100 roubles for a male and female, being 
 fifty times the price usually obtained for them 
 by the native hunters. 
 
 ' Hence I rode into the Kum-tagh sands after camels, but 
 without success. 
 
88 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Wild camel hunters — Habits of this animal — Mode of killing 
 it — ^Distinguishing marks — Its origin considered — Lake 
 Karaburan — Chon-Kul,or the Great Lake — Disappearance 
 of the Tarim — Mode of fishing — Lake-dwellers — Animal 
 life — Details of population — Appearance of natives ; 
 language ; dwellings — Cloth made of Aselepias fibre — 
 Domestic utensils — Occupations and religion — Marriage — 
 Burial of dead — Expert boatmen — Existence in winter — 
 Novel surroundings- — Ornithology, extraordinary number 
 of birds— Duck-shooting — Specimens for the collection — 
 Migratory waterfowl — Climate — Departure of birds — Dust 
 storms — Spring at Lake Lob — Return to Korla — Yakub- 
 Beg's presents — Yulduz again — Spring vegetation — 
 Return to Kulja — Close of expedition. 
 
 AccoEDiNG to the Tinaniinous testimony of the 
 Lob-nortsi, the chief habitat of the wild camel at 
 the present day is the desert of Kum-tagh, to the 
 east of Lake Lob ; this animal is also occasionally 
 found on the Lower Tarim, in the Kuruk-tagh 
 mountains, and more rarely still in the sands 
 bordering with the Cherchen-daria ; beyond the 
 town of Oherchen, in the direction of Khoten, its 
 existence is not known. Twenty years ago, wild 
 camels were numerous near Lake Lob, where the 
 village of Chargalik now stands, and farther to 
 
CAMEL-HUNTEES. 89 
 
 the east along the foot of the Altyn-tagh, as "well 
 as in the range itself. Our guide, a hunter of 
 Chargalik, told us that it was not unusual in those 
 days/ to see some dozens, or even a hundred of 
 these animals together. He himself had killed 
 upwards of. a hundred of them in the course of 
 his life (and he was an old man), with a flint and 
 steel musket.' With an increase of population at 
 Chargalik, the hunters of Lob-nor became more 
 numerous, and camels scarcer. Now, the wild 
 camel only frequents the neighbourhood of Lob- 
 nor; and even here in small numbers. Years 
 pass without' so niuch as one being seen ; in more 
 favourable seasons again the native hunters kill 
 their five and six during the summer and autumn, 
 ,The flesh of; the wild camel, which is very fat in 
 autumn^ is used for food, and the skins for cloth- 
 ing, f These fetch ten tengas or a ruble and 
 thirty copecks at Lob-nor. 
 
 The hunters of Lake Lob assured us that all the 
 camels cahie irom, and retired to, the Kum-tagh 
 deserts. But ' these are entirely inaccessible, owing 
 to the absence of water. At all events, none of 
 the Lob-nortsi,' had ever been there. Some had 
 made the attempt, starting from Chaglyk spring; 
 but after struggling for a couple of days in loose 
 sand-drift, where men and pack animals sank knee- 
 deep,' they became exhausted, and returned home 
 unsuccessful. Total absence of water, however, 
 there cannot be in the Kum-tagh ; for if this were 
 
90 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 the case, camels could not live there ; probably 
 springs may be found which serve as drinking- 
 places. These animals, like their domesticated 
 congeners, are not particular as to food, and can, 
 therefore, safely inhabit the wildest and most 
 barren desert, provided that they are far removed 
 from man. 
 
 During the excessive heats in summer, the 
 camels are attracted by the cool temperature of 
 the higher valleys of Altyn-tagh, and make their 
 way thither to an altitude of 11,000 feet, and even 
 higher, for our guides informed us that they are 
 occasionally found on the lofty plateau on its 
 southern side. Here the chief attraction for them 
 are the springs of water, to say nothing of the 
 greater abundance of camel's thorn (calidium), 
 and their favourite, but less plentiful Hedysarum. 
 In winter the wild camel keeps entirely to the 
 lower and warmer desert, only- entering the 
 mountains from time to time. 
 
 Unlike the domesticated animal, whose chief 
 characteristics are cowardice, stupidity, and 
 apathy, the wild variety is remarkable for its 
 sagacity and admirably developed senses. Its 
 sight is marvellously keen, hearing exceedingly 
 acute, and sense of smell wonderfully perfect. 
 The hunters told us that a camel could scent a 
 man several versts off, see him, however cautiously 
 he might approach, from a great distance, and 
 hear the slightest rustle of his footsteps. Once 
 aware of its danger, it instantly takes to flight. 
 
THE WILD CAMEL. 91 
 
 and never stops for some dozens, or even hundreds 
 of versts. A camel I fired at certainly ran twenty 
 versts without stopping, as I saw by its traces, 
 and probably farther still, had I been able to follow 
 it, for it turned into a ravine off our line of march. 
 One would suppose that so uncouth an animal 
 would be incapable of climbing mountains ; 
 the contrary, however, is actually the case, 
 for we often saw the tracks and droppings of 
 camels in the narrowest gorges, and on slopes 
 steep enough to ba£3e the hunter. Here their 
 footprints are mingled with those of the mountain 
 sheep {Pseudo Nahoor) and the arkari {Oois Poll). 
 So incredible did this appear, that we could hardly 
 believe our eyes when we saw it. The wild camel 
 is very swift, its pace being almost invariably a 
 trot. In this respect, however, the domesticated 
 species will, in a long distance, overtake a good 
 galloper. It is very weak when wounded, and 
 drops directly it is hit by a bullet of small calibre, 
 such as the hunters of Lob-nor use. 
 
 The wild camel pairs in winter, from the middle 
 of January nearly to the end of .February. At 
 such times the old males collect troops of some 
 dozens of females, and jealously guard them 
 from the attentions of their rivals. They have 
 even been known to drive their wives into some 
 secluded glen, and keep them in it as long as 
 the rutting season lasts. At this period too fre- 
 quent fights take place between the males, often 
 terminating in the death of one or other of the 
 
92 tbaveIjS to lob- nor. 
 
 combatants. An'old ;male," wteriMie has over- 
 powered a younger and ■ weaker antagonist, will 
 crush his skull 'between' his teetli. '' 
 
 Females bear oh6e in' three years, the period of 
 gestation' beirig ; rather over the -year ; the young 
 camels are born, never more than one at a time, 
 early -'in' spring, i. e. in March. They are much 
 attached ; to, their 'dams. Should: one of these 
 latter be killed,', the young camel takes to flight, 
 returningi however, again later to the same spot. 
 When caught young,' wild camels are easily tamed 
 and taught to carry a pack.- - 
 
 Their voice, very rarely heard, is a deep, lowing 
 noise; in this way the dams call their young; 
 males, even during the rutting season, utter no 
 sound, but find their consorts by scent. 
 
 We were unable to learn the duration of a 
 camel's life ; some are known to live to a great age. 
 Our hunter-guide once chanced to kill a he-camel, 
 with teeth completely worn down, notwithstand- 
 ing which the animal was in good condition. 
 
 The Lob-nortsi, who hunt the wild camel in 
 summer and autumn, never go expressly in search 
 of it, but kill them whenever they get the chance. 
 
 This sport is generally very difficult, and only 
 three or four hunters in the whole district of Lob- 
 nor engage, in it: The ordinary mode of killing 
 camels is by lying in wait for them at the 
 watering-places, not by following on their fresh 
 tracks. The hunters I sent out in search of this 
 
ITS HABITS AND DISTINGUISHING MAEES. 93 
 
 animal did not return to Lob-nor before the 10th. 
 March, but theyjwere successfulr ' On the border 
 of the Kum-tagh ithey killed a male '■ and female, 
 and quite unexpectedly obtained' a 'Colti by taking 
 it from its dead: mother's •womb. •: ^This ■young 
 camel would, ia the : natiiral '' course, ■ have been 
 born on the following day. ''' : ^ ! ; "• <'"■■ 
 
 The skins of all three specimens were excellentj 
 and had been prepared in the best ■;wayj by-'the 
 hunters, to whom we had given lessons 'in 'the' art 
 of 'skinning and dressing..' TherskuUs .were also 
 perfect. Some days afterwards I received another 
 skin of " a wild- camel -(-male),- kiUed ' on the- Lower 
 Tarim. • This specimen was a little inferior to the 
 others, because the, animal from which it was 
 taken, came from a; warmer climate, and, had 
 already begun to shed its coat, besides having been 
 unscientifically skinned; I need scarcely sayhow 
 glad I was at length to procure the skiu of an 
 animal about which Marco Polo had written, but 
 which no European had hitherto seen.'' ' 1 • 
 
 From a zoological point of view .there 'is little 
 to distinguish the wild from! 'the 'domesticated 
 camel,' and, as far as .we could; judge from a 
 superficial glahcq, the differences are the following, 
 viz. : — (a) there, are no: corns ion the forelegs of 
 the wild specimen ; (h) the humps are half the 
 ' [This is a mistake, Marco Polo makes no mention of the 
 wild camel. The earliest credible record we have of it is that of 
 Shah Eukh's envoys in 1420. • See Cathay, &c., l,,cc., and intro- 
 duction to Prejevalsky's Mongolia. — M., &c.] 
 
94 TEAVELS TO LOB-]SfOE. 
 
 size as compared with those of the tame breed,^ 
 and the long hair on the top of the humps is 
 shorter ; (c) the male has no crest, or a very 
 small one ; (d) the colour of all wild camels is 
 the same — a reddish sandy hue ; this is rare with 
 domestic animals ; (e) the muzzle is more grizzled, 
 and apparently shorter; (/) the ears are also 
 shorter. In addition to these peculiarities, wild 
 camels are generally remarkable for their medium 
 size; huge brutes such as are sometimes seen 
 among their domestic brethren are never found in 
 a wild state. 
 
 Now as to the question — are the camels found 
 by us the direct descendants of wild parents, or 
 are they domesticated specimens which have 
 wandered into the steppe, become wild, and 
 multiplied in a state of nature ? Each of these 
 questions can be answered both in the affirmative 
 and negative. In South America we find an 
 instance of domesticated animals running wild 
 and multiplying, as where a few horned cattle and 
 horses have escaped from the Spanish colonies 
 and increased on the free pasture-lands into great 
 herds. A similar instance, on a smaller scale, 
 attracted my attention in Ordos, where, after the 
 Dungan insurrection, in the course of some two 
 
 " The flesh of -an eleven-year-old camel obtained for us from 
 Tarim had not been removed, so that we could easily take the 
 measurement. The result was that the humps of this full-grown 
 male were only seven inches high, whilst those of domestic 
 camels not unfrequently measure IJft., and even more. 
 
ORIGIN OP WILD CAMELS. 95 
 
 or three years cows and bulls liad become as 
 wild and difficult to stalk as antelope.' But 
 with regard to the multiplying of camels which 
 had obtained their liberty, a difficulty arises in 
 the circumstance of there being very few males 
 of the domesticated kind fit for the stud, and 
 lastly, the acts of breeding and birth are for the 
 most part performed with the assistance of man. 
 Assuming that the latter of these difficulties may 
 disappear when leading a free life, the other 
 nevertheless remains, i. e. the irremediable injury 
 produced by castration. Few chances, therefore, 
 remain of camels capable of breeding escaping ; 
 one exception must, however, be made in the case 
 of interbreeding of wild male with female domes- 
 ticated camels. 
 
 On the other hand, the localities fit for human 
 habitation in the basin of Lob-nor are particularly 
 ill-suited for camels, owing to the damp climate, 
 insects, and bad food. Hence the population 
 could hardly at any time have kept many, and 
 now the Lob-nortsi keep none at all.* 
 
 Turning to the other proposition, i. e. that the 
 wild camel of the present day is directly descended 
 from wild ancestors, more weighty evidence may, 
 I think, be adduced in support of this theory. It 
 
 ' [Cf. Mongolia, i. 212.] 
 
 * In other parts, however, of Eastern Turkestan there are 
 plenty of camels, and probably there were more in ancient 
 times, when the relations of this country with China were closer 
 than they are now. 
 
96 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 is true tliat besides the peculiarities we have 
 already enumerated, this animal in its v^ild: state 
 possesses those qualifications developed- in the 
 highest degree which should enable, it in 'its 
 struggle for life to have every chance of preserving 
 itself and its young. The admirable development 
 of its external senses saves it from enemies; 
 moreover these are very few in number in the 
 localities that it inhabits — man and wolves being 
 the only ones it has to encounter. Even wolves 
 are rare in the desert, and, would scarcely, be 
 dangerous to a full-grown camel. Besides being 
 habitually wary, it vdll resort to:,the most in- 
 accessible spots to avoid man, and.it is probable 
 that the sandy wastes to the east > of Lake Lob 
 have served time out of mind as its .settled abode.- 
 Of course in earlier ages the limits of, its distribu- 
 tion may have extended much farther' thari_ at' the 
 present time, when all that remains .for it is the, 
 most remote corner of the great desert of Central 
 Asia. 
 
 On comparing the above-mentioned data,- it 
 seems to me possible to arrive at the; conclusion 
 that the wild camel of the present day'js ,the direct 
 descendant of wild parents, but that from time to, 
 time escaped domesticated animals ; probably be-l 
 came mixed with them. The latter, or rather such 
 as were capable of begetting stock, left offspring, 
 and these in after-ages could not be distinguished 
 from wild camels. But in order to decide this 
 
LAKE KARA-BUEAN. 
 
 97 
 
 point finally it will be of importance to compare 
 the skulls of tlie two varieties. 
 
 In the first days of February we returned to 
 Lob-nor, of whioli with, the Lower Tarim we will 
 now speak. 
 
 After uniting near Airilgan ferry with the 
 Kiok-ala-daria, the Tarim, as we have already said, 
 flows for about seventy versts nearly due south, 
 and then falls into, or rather forms by its dis- 
 charge, Lake Kara-buran. This name signifies 
 " black storm," and has been given to the lake by 
 the natives on account of the great waves which 
 rise on its surface, during a storm; and also 
 because with a wind from the east or north-east 
 (most frequent in spring) the Kara-buran in- 
 undates the salt marshes for a great distance 
 towards the south-west, so much so as to inter- 
 rupt for a time the communications between the 
 Tarim and the village of Chargalyk. 
 
 Lake Kara-buran itself is from thirty to thirty- 
 five versts long, and ten to twelve versts wide. 
 Its area, however, depends a good deal upon the 
 quantity of water in the Tarim ; with high water 
 the flat 'shores of the lake are flooded for some 
 distance, whilst with low water the salt marshes 
 on its borders are uncovered. Lake Kara-buran 
 is not above three to four feet deep, and in places 
 even less than this, although occasional deep pools 
 occur, and the open space free from reeds is 
 
 H 
 
98 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOB. 
 
 comparatively larger than on Lob-nor. At the 
 point where the Tarim flows into Kara-buran, 
 another small stream, the Cherchen-daria, to 
 which we have referred earlier, joins it from the 
 west. 
 
 On issuing from Kara-buran the Tarim again 
 appears as a river of some importance, but it soon 
 rapidly diminishes, owing to the numerous canals 
 by means of which the inhabitants draw off the 
 water for fishing purposes. On the opposite bank 
 the neighbouring desert continually encroaches 
 upon the land capable of cultivation, scorching with 
 its fiery breath every spare drop of moisture, and 
 finally arresting the further progress of the river 
 eastward. The struggle is over, the desert has 
 gained the mastery over the river, hf e is swallowed 
 up in death. But before finally disappearing, the 
 Tarim forms by the overflow of its last waters an 
 extensive reedy marsh known from ancient times 
 as Lob-nor. The name Lob-nor as applied to the 
 lake is unknown to the natives by whom the 
 whole lower course of the Tarim receives this 
 appellation, whilst the lake itself goes by the 
 general name of Chon-kul (i. e. great lake) or 
 more often Kara-kurchin, denoting the whole 
 administrative district. In order to avoid con- 
 fusion, I will continue to use the ancient name of 
 Lob-nor. 
 
 This lake, or more strictly speaking this marsh, 
 is in shape an irregular ellipse elongated from 
 
LAKE CHON-KUL. 99 
 
 S.W. to N.B., its maximum lengtli in this direc- 
 tion being ninety to a hundred versts, "wMlst its 
 width nowhere exceeds twenty. Such at least is 
 the description that the inhabitants give of it. As 
 for myself, I could only explore the southern and 
 western shores, and accomphsh a boat voyage down 
 the Tarim to the centre of the lake ; farther than 
 this it was not possible to advance, owing to the 
 thick reeds and shallows, indeed the whole of Lob- 
 nor is over-grown with reeds, leaving a belt of clear 
 water (from one to three versts wide) along the 
 southern shore, and small open spaces studded 
 like stars over the reedy expanse. 
 
 From the accounts given us by the natives it 
 appears that the lake was clearer and deeper 
 thirty years ago. Since that time the stream of 
 the Tarim continually decreased, and the lake 
 became shallower as the reeds multiphed. This 
 went on for twenty years, but during the last six 
 the volume of water has been again on the increase, 
 and as the former lake bed, choked with reeds, is 
 no longer large enough to contain it, the river 
 now overflows its shores. 
 
 In this way not very long ago the belt of clear 
 water extending along the whole southern shore 
 of Lake Lob was formed. Beneath the surface 
 may be seen the roots and stumps of tama- 
 risk trees, which once grew on dry land. The 
 depth is for the most part only two or three feet, 
 rarely four or six feet, and for 300 or even 500paces 
 
 H 2 
 
100 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOB. 
 
 from the shore barely exceeds one foot. The whole 
 of Lob-nor is equally shallow, only here and there 
 occur occasional pools, ten or at most twelve to 
 thirteen feet deep. The water in all parts of the lake 
 is clear and sweet, being brackish only round the 
 shores, which are salt and swampy, devoid of aU 
 vegetation, and furrowed in ridges on the surface. 
 These saline marshes surround the whole of Lob- 
 nor ; along the southern shore their width is from 
 eight to ten versts, whilst on the east, according 
 to the report of the inhabitants, they extend much 
 farther till they blend with the sands. Beyond 
 the salt marshes, at aU events on the south where 
 I surveyed them, a narrow belt of tamarisk-trees 
 follows the shore line, and beyond this again a 
 pebbly plain rising considerably though gradually 
 to the foot of Altyn-tagh. This was probably in 
 remote times the border of Lake Lob itself, which 
 at that period overflowed its shores, and was there- 
 fore far more extensive, and probably deeper and 
 less obstructed by reeds than at present. What 
 caused the diminution of the lake, and whether 
 this phenomenon was periodical or not, I cannot 
 say. But the fact that almost all the lakes of Cen- 
 tral Asia show signs of desiccation is well known. 
 Let us now say a few words about the Tarim. 
 
 At the western extremity of Lake Lob, near 
 the village of Abdallah, this river has still a width 
 of 125 feet, greatest mean depth fourteen feet, 
 velocity of current 170 feet per minute, sectional 
 
DISAPPEARANCE OF THE TAlilM. 101 
 
 area 1270 square feet, channel trough-shaped as 
 before. 
 
 Below Abdallah the Tarim rapidly diminishes in 
 size. Thus twenty versts lower its width is no more 
 than fifty to fifty-six feet, and twenty versts lower 
 still twenty to thirty feet, although its depth is from 
 seven to ten feet, and the velocity of its stream con- 
 siderable. For twenty versts farther the Tarim 
 continues to flow as a brook of this kind, making 
 several sharp bends, and at length entirely disap- 
 pearing in the reeds. Farther to the north-east, and 
 even before going so far, extend reedy and for the 
 most part impassable marshes. It is impossible to 
 cleave a passage evenfor the smallest canoe through 
 this dense growth of canes, growing to a height 
 of twenty feet and upwards in some places, and 
 measuring one inch in the diameter of the stems. 
 These monster canes fringe in one continuous 
 alley the banks of the Tarim itself, whilst in 
 shallower and more stagnant places grows water 
 asparagus (Hippuris). Besides the canebrake we 
 found all overLob-nor cat's tai[(Typha) and water- 
 gladiole (Butomus); but of other water-plants, at 
 least in early spring, there are none. 
 
 There is an abundance of fish in the lake of the 
 same two kinds as in the Tarim, viz. marena 
 (Goregonus marcena), and another of the carp 
 family unknown to me. The first mentioned is 
 by far the most plentiful in Lob-nor. The inha- 
 bitants call it balih, i. e. fish in general, and the 
 
102 TEAVELS TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 other witt a spotted back, the tazeh-balih. Both 
 kinds spawn in March. 
 
 The fishing begins in the early spring, and 
 terminates late in the autumn. Small nets are 
 used for this purpose in which the fish entangle 
 themselves. The usual and most profitable 
 method practised by the inhabitants may be 
 described as follows :— a convenient spot having 
 been selected for the purpose, a passage is 
 cut into the Tarim (whose level, as we have 
 already observed, is higher than the flats along- 
 side it) water then pours out upon the plain, 
 and a shallow but wide- spreading lake gradually 
 forms, into which the fish find their way through 
 the channel from the river. In May the opening 
 is blocked up and the water ceases to flow. 
 During the summer the great evaporation gra- 
 dually dries up these artificial lakes, except in the 
 deeper parts where the fish all congregate, and 
 about the month of September the natives pro- 
 ceed to take them ; for this purpose a small 
 aperture is again made, and a net placed there. 
 The lake-fish, tired with their long confinement 
 in the small pools, no sooner feel the rush of 
 fresh water from the river than they hasten to 
 meet it, and are caught in the trap. In this way 
 the take is sometimes very large, and supplies 
 are thus laid in for the winter. Moreover the 
 inhabitants say that the long confinement in 
 stagnant water impregnated with the salt of 
 
LAKE DWELLEES- BIRDS. 103 
 
 the soil makes the fish fat, and gives them. a fine 
 flavour. 
 
 As the banks of the Tarim upon entering the 
 lake are flat, the dwellers on Lob-nor cannot em- 
 ploy the same method of ensuring fijod for the 
 winter, but wherever it is possible they dig trenches 
 between the river and the lakelets, and place 
 nets there. Owing, however, to the vast quantity 
 of fish, other modes of taking them are equally 
 successful. We were told that Lob-nor freezes 
 over in November,' and thaws early in March, the 
 ice being from one to two feet thick. 
 
 In winter when frost drives southwards the 
 innumerable water-fowl, animal life becomes very 
 scarce. At such times the reeds are only tenanted 
 by small flocks of the bearded titmouse (Panurus 
 barbatus), Gynchramus schceniclus, and G. pyrrhu- 
 loides. Now and again a kite {Gircus rufus, G. 
 cyanus) wings its noiseless, stealthy flight over- 
 head. In the salt marshes along the shore you 
 may occasionally flush a covey of small larks 
 (Alaudula leucophcea ?) ; woodpeckers, Bhodopo- 
 philus deserti, and Passer ammodendri are some- 
 times found in the tamarisk bushes; black 
 crows (G. orientalis) haunt the villages, and an 
 occasional chough (Podoces Biddulphii) may be 
 found on the drier ground. If to these be added 
 
 * Somejtimes in the early part, sometimes not till the end of 
 this month. 
 
104 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. , 
 
 a few pheasants,' and wintering meadow-pipits, 
 swans and bitterns, our list of the avi-fauna of 
 Lob-nor will be complete. 
 
 The commonest forms of mammalia are the 
 tiger, wolf, fox, wild boar, hare, and djiran, all in 
 small numbers; of the lesser rodents, even such 
 as sand-martens and mice, there are but very few. 
 
 In spring, however, especially at its commence- 
 ment, Lob-nor is literally alive with water-fowl. 
 Situated in the very midst of a wild and barren 
 desert, half-way between north and south, it serves 
 without doubt as an admirable resting-place for 
 birds of passage, belonging to the web-footed and 
 wading orders. 
 
 "Were there no Tarim water-system, their flight 
 would doubtless take a very different direc- 
 tion. But for this lake, they would find no rest- 
 ing-place between India and Siberia, and the 
 winged travellers could never cross in one flight 
 the whole distance from the Himalayas to the 
 Tian-Shan. 
 
 Before proceeding to describe spring on Lob- 
 nor, let us say a few words about its inhabitants, 
 the Kara-Kurchintsi, who inhabit eleven villages 
 mostly situated in the midst of Lob-nor ; of these 
 the following is a list : Cheglik, six houses ; 
 Tuguz-ata, eleven ; Abdallah, six ; Kuchak-ata, 
 two ; Kum-chapkan, fifteen ; Kum-luk, four ; 
 
 ° The same kind as on the Tarim and Kaidu-sol. 
 
INHABITANTS. 105 
 
 Uitun, five; Shakel, four; Kara-Kurcliin, two 
 villages with four houses in each ; besides these, 
 nine families are settled at Chargalyk. The 
 Kara-Kurchintsi therefore number some seventy 
 families, with a population of 300 souls of both 
 sexes. 
 
 The increase of population at Lob-nor is very 
 trifling, the reason of course being the unfavour- 
 able conditions of life there. Five or six children 
 in a family are rare, the usual number being two or 
 three, and sometimes there are none at all. 
 
 In earlier but not very remote times Lob-nor 
 was far more numerously populated than it is 
 now ; it numbered then some 650 families, two- 
 thirds of whom lived on the lake itself, but 
 twenty years ago the small-pox destroyed in the 
 course of a few months nearly all the inhabi- 
 tants, and most of those who survived had been 
 attacked by the disease. However, even these 
 insignificant remnants of the former people of 
 Lob-nor were only preserved in their primitive 
 state within the lake itself. The other inhabi- 
 tants had already commenced an altered mode of 
 life ; they kept flocks of sheep, and bred horned 
 cattle in small numbers, sowed corn and made bread 
 of it. This change for the better, at all events 
 in agriculture, began not very long ago under the 
 influence of the Khoten immigrants living at 
 Chargalyk, and it is in the neighbourhood of this 
 village that the native population sow their wheat 
 
106 TEAVELS TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 in the latter half of March, there being no land 
 suitable for the purpose at Lob-nor itself/ 
 
 The favourable opportunity now afforded me of 
 seeing all that was left of the primitive life of the 
 inhabitants of Lob-nor,^ was so much the more 
 valuable, as in the course of a decade or two what 
 I am now relating will seem like a tradition of 
 bygone times. 
 
 In appearance the inhabitants of Kara-Kur- 
 chinia and the Tarim present a strange mixture 
 of facial types, some of which call to mind the 
 Mongolian race. The prevailing characteristics 
 are however Aryan, though far from pure. As 
 far as I could judge, the distinctive traits of a 
 native of these parts are height, rather below the 
 average ; frame, weak and hollow-chested ; cheek- 
 bones prominent, and chin pointed ; beard scanty 
 and a VEspagnole ; whiskers even smaller ; hair on 
 the face generally of feeble growth; Hps often 
 thick and protruding ; teeth white and regular, 
 and skin dark, whence their name (Kara-Kurchin, 
 i. e. black Koshun) may be derived. 
 
 One language prevails among all the inhabitants 
 of this region. It is said to resemble closely 
 the dialect of Khoten, but to be distinct from 
 that of Korla and Turfan. The inhabitants on 
 
 ' Besides this a little corn is sown on some land on the 
 Djagansai-daria, near the site of a ruined town. 
 
 ' About the middle of March, when the ice had finally 
 thawed, I visited all the Lob-nor villages in a boat. 
 
THEIR DWELLINGS. 107 
 
 the Tarim and Lob-nor are in general descended 
 from a common stock, whilst those on the latter 
 fell more under the influence and influx of 
 foreigners from the oases at the foot of the Tian- 
 Shan. 
 
 Now for a few words on the lake-dwellers of 
 Lob-nor. And first about their habitations. 
 
 As the traveller descends the narrow, tortuous 
 channel of the Tarim between rows of huge canes, 
 he suddenly comes upon three or four boats 
 moored to the river bank, and farther on a clear 
 space on which, closely grouped together, stand 
 some square, reed-made enclosures. This is a 
 village. Its inhabitants, startled at the unusual 
 sight of a stranger, have hidden themselves, and 
 are taking a furtive look through their reed walls, 
 but recognizing the rowers as their own people, 
 and their chief among them, they come forward and 
 assist in mooring the boats. You land and look 
 around — nought to be seen but marsh and reeds, 
 not a dry spot anywhere ; wild duck and geese 
 are paddhng about close to the dwelHng-place 
 itself, and an old wild boar is quietly wallowing in 
 the mud almost between the houses. So little 
 does the native of these parts resemble a man, that 
 even the shy wild animal fears him not ! 
 
 Let us enter. Here is a square enclosure made 
 of reeds, the only building material, for even the 
 posts supporting the sides and corners of the 
 enclosure are made of sheaves of them bound to- 
 
108 TKAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 gether. Reeds, too, are laid on the ground, and 
 serve as a slight covering to the marshy soil, so 
 that you are not obliged actually to sit in the 
 mud. I have seen in some huts the winter's ice 
 beneath this reedy flooring unthawed as late as 
 the middle of March. Bach face of the dwelhng- 
 place is twenty feet long ; the entrance is from the 
 south. The roof is also made of reeds ; but so 
 miserably put together that it does not even 
 shelter from the sun's rays, much less from the 
 bad weather ; and the same with the walls, the 
 wind blows right through them during a storm as 
 easily as it does through the growing rushes. 
 
 In the middle of the floor a small hole is 
 scooped out for a fireplace ; the fuel is also com- 
 posed of reeds ; indeed these are invaluable to the 
 inhabitants, supplying them with building materials 
 and fuel; the young spring shoots are used for 
 food, and the autumnal sweepings are gathered 
 for bedding. Lastly, these latter, when boiled 
 down, yield a dark, glutinous, and sweet sub- 
 stance, eaten by the natives instead of sugar. 
 
 Another plant of equal importance to the 
 inhabitants of Lob-nor and Tarim is the asclepias, 
 a shrub which, like our hemp plant, yields 
 a fibre from which yarn is spun and cloth pre- 
 pared for wearing apparel, as well as nets for 
 fishing. The asclepias grows in abundance along 
 the whole course of the Lower Tarim, but there is 
 scarcely any on Lake Lob. Hence the natives 
 
THEIR DEESS. 
 
 109 
 
 have to seek it on the Tarim in spring and 
 autumn, preparing it in the manner we have 
 described. 
 
 The garments made from the cloth, and worn 
 by the natives, consist of a cloak and trousers ; 
 the winter head-dress is a sheepskin cap, that in 
 summer is of felt. The feet are uncovered, 
 except in winter, and the shoes then worn are of 
 the very poorest description, made of undressed 
 hide ; in summer even the head men go bare- 
 footed. In winter the cloaks are lined with duck- 
 skins dressed with salt, whilst the down and 
 feathers are mixed with dry reeds and used for 
 bedding. But this is luxury to the Kara- 
 Kurchinian, many lie down to sleep on the bare 
 rushes that litter the marshy floor, with nothing 
 to cover them but the tattered cloak they wear 
 during the day. For the sake of warmth these 
 miserable creatures roll themselves up like balls, 
 often on their backs, with hands and feet tucked 
 under them. In this way five of our boatmen 
 slept all huddled together, a living lump of 
 humanity. 
 
 The food of the inhabitants consists chiefly of 
 fish, fresh in summer, dried in winter. They boil 
 the fresh fish, and drink the water in which it is 
 boiled as we should tea; the dried fish is first 
 steeped in salt water, and then fried. In neither 
 case are the scales removed in the cooking pro- 
 cess, this is done while they ai-e being eaten. In 
 
110 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 spring, and part of summer and autumn, ducks 
 trapped in nets form a variety to tlie fish-diet; 
 and as a particular treat in spring, they cook and 
 eat the tender young shoots of the reeds. They 
 eat neither bread nor mutton, owing to the scarcity 
 of both ; whenever they obtain flour from Char- 
 galyk, they roast it over the fire. Some of them 
 cannot even eat mutton, for it injuriously affects 
 their digestive organs, unaccustomed to such food. 
 
 In order to give an idea of the life these people 
 lead, I will enumerate the property belonging to 
 the family in whose house I passed several days 
 during a storm. It consisted of — two boats and 
 some nets outside ; within the house, a cast-iron 
 bowl of Korla manufacture, an axe, two wooden 
 cups, a wooden dish, ladle and bucket made at 
 home of poplar wood; a knife and razor belonging 
 to the master of the house, a few needles, a loom 
 and distafi" belonging to the mistress, the wearing 
 apparel of the whole family, two cloths made of 
 asclepias fibre, some strings of dried fish, et voila 
 tout. The wrought-iron implements are from Char- 
 galyk, and might serve as specimens of the iron 
 age, so rude is the workmanship. The axe had 
 not even an opening for the handle, which was 
 fastened to the bent edge of the head." 
 
 The native of this country is as poor and 
 weak morally as he is physically. His thoughts 
 and ideas are limited by the narrow framework 
 " I have one of these axes in my collection. 
 
OCCUPATIONS AND EELIGIOUS KITES. Ill 
 
 of tis surroundings, and lie knows nothing be- 
 j'ond. Boats, nets, fish, ducks, and reeds, these 
 are the only things step-mother nature has endowed 
 him with. Under such circumstances, it may be 
 easily imagined how incapable he becomes of de- 
 veloping his faculties, excluded as he is from all 
 intercourse with an outer world. He thinks of, 
 hopes for nothing beyond his native lake, the rest 
 of the world does not exist for him. A constant 
 conflict with want, hunger, and cold has laid a 
 stamp of apathy and moroseness on his character. 
 He hardly ever laughs, nor do his thoughts soar 
 above the necessities of the present — fishing, 
 hunting, and the routine of his daily life. Many 
 of these people are unable to count up to a 
 hundred ; a few, however, of the more civilized 
 among them are artful and cunning in ordinary 
 transactions. The Mohammedan religion, although 
 professed by all, has not taken deep root among 
 them ; I never once saw its rites and ceremonies 
 performed, and in the whole of Lob-nor there is 
 not one akhoond. Prayers during circumcision, 
 marriage, and funerals are read aloud by the 
 educated son of the local governor, who is at such 
 times generally concealed from sight. 
 
 Circumcision is performed in the fourth or 
 fifth year, generally in the spring season, when 
 fish and ducks are plentiful enough to provide 
 entertainment for the neighbours. Grirls marry 
 at the age of fourteen or fifteen ; men at the 
 
112 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOB. 
 
 same age or a little over. The betrothal, how- 
 ever, is sometimes much earlier, often when the 
 bride and bridegroom are not above ten years of 
 age. The Kalym or purchase-money paid to the 
 bride's parents is considerable — ten bundles of 
 asclepias fibre, ten strings of dried fish, and a 
 hundred or two of ducks. Immorality is severely 
 punished ; but the husband is allowed to turn his 
 wife out of doors and take another. Upon the 
 death of the husband the care of the wife devolves 
 on the brother or some other near relative of the 
 deceased. The lot of the women is more burden- 
 some than that of the men. The wife is cer- 
 tainly mistress of her household, but how little 
 is comprised in this word is evident from the 
 fact that almost all the possessions are articles of 
 daily use and consumption. During the husband's 
 absence from home the wife mends the nets ; 
 upon her alone devolves the troublesome task of 
 weaving the asclepias cloth, and she too assists 
 the husband in collecting reeds for fuel and 
 building purposes. 
 
 Externally the women are very unattractive; 
 the old women are especially hideous, and one 
 of those I saw at Lob-nor, emaciated, wrinkled, 
 clad in rags, with matted hair, and shivering 
 from ague, presented a most sorry likeness of 
 humanity.' 
 
 ' If I remember riglit, Darwin makes similar remarks on the 
 ^echeresses whom he met in a boat near the shores of Patagonia. 
 
EXPERT BOATMEN — FISHING. 113 
 
 They bury their dead in boats — one serving 
 for the bottom, another for the lid of the cofl&n, 
 which is fixed on low supports in a slight hollow 
 dug in the ground; earth is then thrown over 
 the grave. Half the nets of the deceased are 
 buried with him ^ the remainder devolving on his 
 relatives. His boats and nets are generally the 
 most precious of the possessions of the Kara- 
 Kurchinian, for they afford him the means of 
 subsistence. The boats — or, more strictly speak- 
 ing, the canoes — are from twelve to fourteen 
 feet in length by a foot and a half wide, 
 and even narrower. In this cockleshell the native 
 stands up ; no matter how strong the wind, 
 navigating his craft as it dances over the waves 
 like a sea-bird. In calm weather and down 
 stream the swiftness of the boat rivals that of 
 the fish. The women are as. expert in its manage- 
 ment as the men : water is indeed their native 
 element. 
 
 Most of the fishing is done with small circular 
 nets, which are set in the narrow watercourses or 
 in channels specially dug for this purpose between 
 the lakes and the Tarim ; these are examined 
 every morning and evening by their owners. 
 Long nets are, as an exception, set in the lakes, 
 and the fish are driven into them by beating the 
 water with the oars. When the take is successful 
 part of the booty is dried for winter use, when 
 
 " Nets are sometimes stretched round the grave. 
 
 I 
 
114 TEAVBLS TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 fishing entirely ceases ; but they continue to set 
 nets even after the first ice has formed. 
 
 The winter, although short in its duration, 
 is the most trying time for the wretched in- 
 habitants, who suffer almost as much in their 
 reed habitations from the severe night frosts as 
 if they were exposed to the open air. It is cer- 
 tainly warm enough in the daytime; but then 
 another enemy — hunger — has to be encountered. 
 Well and good if the summer take has been large, 
 and stores laid by for future consumption. Some 
 years, however, the fishing is unsuccessful, and 
 winter brings with it starvation. In summer too it 
 is very little better. True, it is then warm and food 
 more plentiful. On the other hand, myriads of 
 flies and mosquitoes torment one the livelong day, 
 particularly in calm weather. These horrid in- 
 sects appear about the middle of March, and do 
 not die off till late in the autumn. How the poor 
 children with their naked little bodies must suffer 
 when adults cannot rest comfortably at night for 
 them ! The prevailing form of disease on Lake 
 Lob and the Tarim is inflammation of the eyes, 
 owing to the saline dust which continually fills 
 the air ; sores on the legs and rheumatism are 
 also not uncommon. 
 
 Such is the life of the wretched inhabitants of 
 Lob-nor, unknown to and knowing nothing of the 
 rest of the world. As I sat in one of these damp 
 reedy enclosiires, surrounded by the semi-nude 
 
NOVEL SUEEOUNDINGS. 116 
 
 inhabitants of one of tlie villages, I could not help 
 thinking how many generations of progress sepa- 
 rated me from my neighbours, and what the 
 genius of man has been to raise from such 
 beings as these, whom our remote ancestors most 
 probably resembled, the Europeans of the present 
 day ! The wild people of Lob-nor eyed me with 
 stupid wonder. But I was not less interested in 
 them than they in me. There was a singular 
 attractiveness and originality about the whole 
 scene, in the midst of the distant, unknown lake, 
 surrounded by human beings who vividly recalled 
 to mind man's primitive condition. 
 
 "We passed the whole of February and two- 
 thirds of March on the shore of Lob-nor, this being 
 the sixth consecutive spring I had devoted to 
 ornithological observations over the wide expanse 
 of Eastern and Central Asia from Lake Hanka in 
 Manchuria to Lob-nor in Eastern Turkestan. 
 
 After looking about us, we finally located our- 
 selves on the bank of the Tarim exactly opposite 
 the western margin of Lob-nor itself, one verst 
 from the little village of Abdallah, where the ruler 
 of Lob-nor, Kunchikan Beg,^ resides. On either 
 side of us stretched continuous marshes and lakes, 
 making it a difficult matter to find dry ground for 
 
 ^ This title means " Beg of the rising sun." The father of 
 Kunchikan was named Djagansai Beg, i. e. " Ruler of the 
 universe." It would appear that human vanity has pene- 
 trated into the wildest desert. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 TEAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 our camp. Bat the situation was singularly 
 favourable for ornitliological purposes. Every 
 new arrival could be at once observed, and our 
 expectations of a great flight of birds were not 
 disappointed. Hardly had we reached Lob-nor on 
 the 3rd of February than we saw many which had 
 probably arrived a few days before, the gull {Larus 
 brunneicephalus) and swan (Gygnus olor?). Of the 
 latter, however, we only saw one specimen, and 
 this may have been a wintering bird. About the 
 6th of the month we found widgeon {Gasarca 
 rutila), red-crested pochard (Fuligula rufina) and 
 grey goose {Anser cinereus) the day after pin- 
 tails {Dafila acuta), and white and grey herons 
 {Ardea alba, A. cinerea), and on the 8th February 
 the ducks began to arrive en masse, chiefly of two 
 kinds, pintails and pochard. For days together 
 they sped onwards always from the west-south- 
 west, continuing their flight farther to the east, 
 evidently in search of open water, of which there 
 was as yet very little visible. Having gained the 
 eastern extremity of Lob-nor, and found only 
 desert, they turned back, and settled down amongst 
 the numerous lakelets and open pools. But theis 
 favourite haunts were the flat mud-banks over- 
 grown with low saline bushes, and of these there 
 were many near our camp. Here every day, 
 particularly towards evening, vast flocks of them 
 would congregate, densely crowding large areas 
 of ice ; the noise they made on rising into the air 
 
FLOCKS OP BIRDS. 117 
 
 was like a hurricane, and their appearance from a 
 distance resembled a thick cloud. It would be 
 no exaggeration to say that there would be as 
 many as two, three, and perhaps four or even five 
 thousand collected together. These followed one 
 another in quick succession, to mention nothing 
 of smaller companies whirling ceaselessly in every 
 direction. Hardly a minute passed, and not single 
 but many flocks of both local and migratory birds 
 might be noticed. The latter could always be 
 distinguished by their higher, more rapid, but at 
 the same time more regular flight. Tens and 
 hundreds of thousands, probably millions of birds 
 appeared at Lob-nor during the fortnight, begin- 
 ning on the 8th February, that the flight was at its 
 height. What prodigious quantities of food must 
 be necessary for such numbers ! And why do 
 these birds leave their winter quarters in the south 
 for northern countries, where it is so cold and 
 dreary ? Is it that they have not sufficient space 
 in those strange lands, and that this obliges them 
 to hurry their departure in order to gain the less 
 populous countries of the north, where the happy 
 days of pairing, and the difficult ones of rearing 
 their young must be passed. There every bird of 
 passage has its home, to be abandoned only for a 
 short time, and with return of spring to be re- 
 visited by the winged wanderers, as eager to hasten 
 homewards as they are loth to leave in autumn 
 when the flight is prolonged for some months. 
 
118 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 The observations on the spring flight at Lob-nor 
 afforded new proofs that birds of passage do not 
 take the shortest meridional course, but prefer a 
 more favourable, though more circuitous route. 
 All the flocks without exception which appeared 
 at Lob-nor came from W.S.W., occasionally from 
 S.W. and W. ; not a bird flew direct from the 
 south, over the Altyn-tagh Mountains, thus proving 
 that migratory birds, or at all events water-fowl, 
 will not venture to cross the lofty and cold Tibetan 
 highlands on their passage from the trans-Hima- 
 layan countries, but pass over this difl&cult country 
 at its narrowest point-* 
 
 In all probability the feathered kind follow the 
 Indian valleys to the neighbourhood of Khoten, 
 and then take the direction of the Tarim and Lob- 
 nor across the warmer and less elevated districts. 
 This explains the reason of their following a 
 W.S.W. and not S. course to Lob-nor. And we 
 were told by the inhabitants that in autumn they 
 depart in the same dii'ection. 
 
 As soon as the great flight of birds began in 
 earnest our days were passed in sport. The 
 
 " [But there are doubtless lakes in Tibet fed by warm springs, 
 resorted to by birds early in the year. Captain Trotter men- 
 tions having seen waterfowl at Wood's Victoria Lake on the 
 great Pamir, where he detected the presence of warm springs. 
 (See his report on the survey operations in E. Turkestan, p. 52 
 and passim.) And Sir D. Forsyth mentions having found strag- 
 glers of these birds frozen to death in their flight across the 
 mountains in October (Report, p. 70). — M.] 
 
DUCK-SHOOTING. 119 
 
 Cossacks ' also took an active part, making use 
 of shot manufactured by themselves. Our 
 supply of lead, however, was soon exhausted, 
 and our companions were obliged to discontinue 
 their pastime ; the rifles I reserved for large 
 birds, such as geese, swans, eagles, &c. Duck- 
 shooting was always absurdly easy. We counted 
 the slain by dozens, although we husbanded 
 our ammunition, having only a small quantity, and 
 no use for the ducks we killed. Of these we re- 
 quired three apiece for food, so that we boiled 
 twenty-four ducks in our saucepan for breakfast, 
 dinner, and supper daily. Such are travellers' 
 appetites sharpened by out-door life and constant 
 exercise — the best of antidotes against stomachic 
 disorders and sleeplessness. We usually started 
 for the chase about noon or a little earlier, 
 when the sun was getting warm and the ducks 
 were feeding among the reeds, as they are wont 
 to be less shy at this time than at any other. 
 Besides, in my frequent walks over the ice, which 
 had begun to thaw rapidly on these lakes about 
 the middle of February, I often chanced to fall 
 through to the waist, and a bath of this kind, 
 disagreeable enough on a warm day, was quite 
 unbearable on a frosty morning, necessitating a 
 speedy return to camp. 
 
 "^ The Cossacks left behind at Chargalyk joined us at Lob-nor ; 
 hither too came Zaman Beg, who had gone to Korla at the 
 bidding of Yaliub Beg during our absence. 
 
120 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 The sport began at our very yurta. On looking 
 round, we invariably noticed several flocks, some 
 on the mud along the shores of the lake, others on 
 the ice, this latter being preferred by the pintail 
 duck, whereas the pochards and gadwalls (Anas 
 strepera) like the open water. Closely huddled 
 together, the flock always utter a low, muffled note, 
 and the clatter of their bills whilst dabbhng the 
 mud for food could be heard some distance off. 
 After considering which of the flocks to stalk, 
 you start in that direction, at first walking as 
 usual, then in a stooping attitude, and lastly 
 crawling on all fours. Under cover of the reeds 
 you approach to within a hundred paces or 
 even nearer, your heart almost in your mouth in 
 your eagerness. Before you, like liquid mud, a 
 number of ducks are huddled together, nothing 
 but moving heads and white necks to be dis- 
 tinguished in that shapeless mass. Drawing 
 breath, you aim — one barrel at them sitting, an- 
 other as they rise, and ten birds, at least, killed 
 and wounded, strew the ice or shore. Many, 
 badly hit, fly some distance before falhng, but 
 there is no time to look for these ; they must be 
 left as the prey of eagles, crows and kites, who 
 watch the sportsman's movements from afar. 
 
 As soon as shots are fired the nearest flocks 
 rise in the air with the noise of a whirlwind ; but 
 after circling for awhile, they again settle down, 
 sometimes in the very spot from which they 
 
COLLECTING SPECIMENS. 121 
 
 rose. In the meanwhile you pick up the slain, 
 and the wounded, collect them aU together in a 
 heap among the rushes, and go off in quest of 
 more victims, when the same thing repeats 
 itself. Sometimes the birds are seated a consider- 
 able distance from the reeds, preventing your 
 approach, and obliging you to fire at 150 paces. 
 In this case you may by chance kill a few with 
 the largest-sized shot ; but only those faU. that 
 are hit in the head, neck, or wing. 
 
 "Weary of this sport, my companion and I would 
 station ourselves in order to shoot single birds 
 flying over our heads. This was the best way of 
 obtaining specimens for our collections, for the 
 packs were mostly composed of pintails. "We 
 almost always posted ourselves among the reeds, 
 so as to be under cover, firing only at choice 
 birds, for they flew over in such numbers that 
 it would have been impossible to reload in time 
 had we fired at every one. Now and again geese, 
 herons, gulls, and kites fell to our guns. Of 
 course there were the usual number of misses in 
 spring shooting, but we invariably made a good 
 bag at the end of two or three hours. 
 
 The inhabitants of Lob-nor never shoot ducks, 
 but set traps wherever they are in the habit of 
 resorting. In this way every trapper secures his 
 two hundred birds in the course of the spring. 
 
 The principal flight was over as quickly as it 
 began. The whole mass of ducks arrived in two 
 
122 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 weeks' time, so that there were only occasional 
 new-comers between the 20th and 22nd. of 
 February. But large as was the quantity of ducks, 
 the variety was so small that by the 19th of the 
 month we had only counted twenty-seven kinds. ^ 
 Of all these only three appeared in very great 
 numbers : pintails, pochards, and gadwalls. The 
 pintails were the most numerous of all, and we 
 could scarcely move a step without seeing some. 
 The others continued to arrive in small numbers 
 up to the end of February. Towards the end of 
 this month, however, a good many grey geese, 
 cormorants, and widgeon {Anas penelope) visited 
 the lake, and by the 18th even coots were seen. 
 It is surprising that such a bad flyer as the coot 
 can traverse at this early season of the year the 
 cold deserts of Western Tibet.' Two days 
 
 " The following is the order of their arrival : — Lams hruii- 
 neicejphalus, Gygnus olor ? I'uligula rufina, Casarca rutila, 
 Anser cinereus. Anas acuta, Ardea alba, Ardea cinerea, JEhli- 
 gulaferina, Graoulus carlo, Anser indicus, JBudytes citreoloides ? 
 Turdus rujlcollis, Anas penelope, Larus argentatus ? I'uligula 
 nyroca. Anas ioscJias, A. clangula, A. crecca, Tadorna cornula, 
 I'uligula cristata. Anas strepera, Sterna caspia, Botaurus 
 stellaris, Anas clypeata, Totanus oalidris, Fulica atra. 
 
 ' [Hume says that the highest ranges " oppose no invincible 
 obstacle to the periodical migration of even the tiniest and 
 most feebled-winged of our songsters. It is startling to think 
 of birds like the Fhylloscopi, ill-adapted as they seem for 
 lengthened flights, and, when not migrating, rarely flying more 
 than a few yards at a time, yearly travelling from Yarkand to 
 Southern India and back again. How these butterfly-like mites 
 brave in safety the vast stretches of almost Arctic deserts — ab- 
 
MIGEATOEY WATEEFOWL. 123 
 
 before this I heard the cry of a bittern — also 
 awkward on the wing — but he may have been a 
 wintering bird. 
 
 It might be supposed that such enormous flocks 
 of the feathered tribe would have imparted life to 
 Lake Lob, and thoroughly roused it from its 
 winter's slumber. But strange to say, this great 
 assemblage of birds created very little stir in 
 these regions. True, the observer might detect 
 movement and bustle near the water's edge — a 
 very bazaar of birds, but the air resounded hardly 
 at all with the joyous songs and notes that har- 
 binger spring-tide in our country. The feathered 
 visitants kept together in flocks, neither disporting 
 nor enjoying themselves, as though they knew it 
 to be only a temporary resting-place, and that a 
 more difficult, more distant journey lay before 
 them. Those songs and notes so welcome to lovers 
 of nature were never heard at Lob-nor, even when 
 the weather was. fine and bright, and no genial 
 warmth was ushered in by early spring. Seated 
 on the ice, the flocks murmured to themselves, 
 as though taking counsel together on their further 
 flight northwards. Of the local birds, a small 
 lark {Alaudula leucophcea?) would occasionally 
 
 solutely devoid of vegetation, where tlie thermometer habitually 
 varies 50° in twelve hours, and a breeze springing up sends the 
 mercury down, far below zero, and freezes men, horses, and even 
 yaks, it is alleged, in a few hours, is verily a mystery." Lahore 
 to Yarhand, pp. 160 et seqq. — M.] 
 
124 TEAVELS TO LOB-NOR. 
 
 burst forth into song, and even he proved but an 
 indifferent master of the art. 
 
 The weather during February was tolerably 
 warm. At noon the thermometer rose in the 
 shade to 55° Fahr. ; after sunset in the first half 
 of the month it fell to 5° Fahr., in the latter half 
 it never stood below 15° Fahr. The sky was 
 generally overcast with hght fleecy or feathery 
 clouds, and the atmosphere charged with dust re- 
 sembling fog or smoke raised by winds which were 
 neither particularly frequent nor violent, although 
 twice (on both occasions from the N.B.) they blew 
 with the force of a gale. While the storm lasted 
 the dust was borne along in clouds entirely 
 obscuring the sun. Indoors it became dusk as 
 twilight, objects upwards of a hundred paces off 
 were undistinguishable, and respiration was dif- 
 ficult. The gale usually subsided rapidly, but for 
 days afterwards a powdery mist was suspended in 
 the air. As the wind rose the cold increased as it 
 generally does in Central Asia. No atmospheric 
 deposits fell, and the air was terribly dry. 
 
 The lower course of the Tarim opened on the 
 4th February, but ice remained on the lakes till 
 the beginning of March, although it had lost its 
 whiteness by the end of February, and hardly 
 held together. 
 
 Scarcely had the lakes opened in the first week 
 of March, than all the feathered visitors of Lob- 
 nor took their departure together for the north. 
 
DEPAETUEE OP BIEUS. 125 
 
 In two or ttree days the number of ducks "was 
 diminislied by one half. For nights in succession 
 we heard the noise of the departing flocks. They 
 rarely started in the daytime, but at night they 
 sped onwards without turning to right or left. 
 By the 10th or 12th of March the chief exodus 
 was over ; the birds had left Lob-nor as quickly 
 as they had come. Again the lake was deserted 
 by the bulk of its February visitants; but the few 
 that remained to nest now began living in a more 
 spring-like fashion. The call-notes of ducks and 
 geese, the shrieks of gulls, the booming cry of the 
 bittern, and the whistle of the coot were more 
 frequent. In the evenings the reeds resounded 
 with the crake of the water-rail. These were all ; 
 no other songsters enlivened the dreary marshes 
 of Lob-nor. 
 
 During the whole of March the arrival of new 
 birds was very deficient both in variety and 
 numbers.^ Vegetation, notwithstanding the warm 
 weather which had set in, slumbered as in winter. 
 Not till the very last days of March did the young 
 green shoots of the reeds begin to spring up and 
 
 = In the first half of this month there appeared Grus cinerea, 
 Lanius isaiellinus, Buteo vulgaris, Pelicanus crispus ?^ Anas 
 querquedula, Saicioola leucomela, Mergus merganser, Podiceps 
 minor, ^gialites cantianus. In the latter half of March arrived 
 Sturnus vulgaris ? Cypselus murarius, Sylvia curruca ? Nu- 
 menius arquatus, Milvus ater, Satcicola atrigularis, Hirundo 
 rustica, Giconia nigra, Cyanecula ccerulecula, and Sypsibates 
 liimantopus. 
 
126 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 flower buds to darken the poplars. The cause of 
 the lateness of the vegetation was the terrible 
 dryness of the air and the periodical cold weather 
 both by night and day during the continuance of 
 the gales, which always blew from the N.B., and 
 occurred much oftener than in February. The 
 clouds of dust raised by these winds settled in 
 a thick layer on the reeds and bushes, rendering 
 it impossible to move a step without getting one's 
 eyes filled, and the sun shone luridly as through 
 smoke. There was not a single clear day all 
 through March and the first half of April. The 
 twilight both morning and evening lasted much 
 longer than usual, and the air was thick and heavy 
 to breathe. 
 
 We passed the end of March and two-thirds of 
 April in the valley of the Lower Tarim, on the way 
 from Lob-nor to the Tian-Shan. Of this well- 
 wooded country we had raised our expectations 
 too high. Here also the absence of spring life 
 was very marked. Notwithstanding the continual 
 and great heats up to 93° Fahr.° in the shade, 
 during April, it was not till the middle of this 
 month that the leaves of the poplar began to unfold, 
 and even then only partially. 
 
 The other bushes and the reeds on the marshes 
 still bore their yellowish wintry tint. Not a 
 flower nor butterfly could be seen ; in their stead 
 
 " [This must surely be a mistake ; the heat in Persia in the 
 micldle of August is hardly above 85° in the shade. — M.] 
 
gPRINa ON LAKE LOB, 127 
 
 clouds of flies and mosquitoes thronged the 
 marshes, and scorpions and tarantulas glided over 
 the dry ground. The neighbouring desert was 
 deprived even of these ornaments, neither lizard 
 nor insect nor any living creature could be seen, 
 nothing stirred the parching sand save the fre- 
 quent whirlwinds riding like demons before the 
 eyes of the traveller. 
 
 It became only a little more cheerful nearer the 
 lakes, where blue-throated warblers and reed birds 
 sang among the canebrake, and pheasants chal- 
 lenged. In the woods very few birds could be 
 seen besides nesting starlings, sand-swallows, and 
 shrikes. Of the smaller migratory birds there 
 were none besides the wren. They all avoid the 
 deserts of Lob-nor, and direct their flight by a 
 neighbouring route to the forests of Siberia. 
 
 By the 10th of April the spring flight of birds 
 in these regions was at an end. On the 19th of 
 that month not far from the Tian-Shan we heard 
 for the first time the note of the cuckoo, be- 
 tokening the proximity of regions incomparably 
 superior as regards climate and nature to the 
 deserts in the midst of which we had passed 
 nearly half a year. 
 
 Eeturning to Korla on the 25th of April, we 
 were lodged in our former quarters, again shut 
 up and placed under surveillance. On the fifth 
 day after ou.r arrival we had an interview with the 
 then ruler of Eastern Turkestan, Yakub Beg, 
 
128 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE, 
 
 lately deceased. He received us graciously, or at 
 all events appeared to do so, and wMle tbe 
 audience lasted for about an hour continually 
 assured us of his good-feeling towards Russians 
 in general and towards me individually in parti- 
 cular. Facts, however, proved the contrary. A 
 few days after the interview we were conducted to 
 the Kaidu-gol, guarded as before, and, on taking 
 leave of us, our escort had the impudence to 
 demand a written document expressing our satis- 
 faction at the way we had been treated during our 
 stay in Djety-shar.' 
 
 In return for the presents we made Yakub' Beg 
 and his suite, we received four horses and ten 
 camels^ — the latter were all bad, and died two 
 days after, thereby embarrassing us not a little 
 when we entered the Balgantai-gol. It was no 
 use to think of returning, yet we had only ten 
 camels ^ and six horses left ; so transferring the 
 packs to the latter, and setting fire to all super- 
 fluous baggage, we marched on foot to Yulduz. 
 Hence I despatched a Cossack and interpreter 
 
 ' [Djety-stahr, i. e. the seven cities — a name given to Dzun- 
 garia, or Eastern Turkestan, after the seven important cities of 
 Kashgar, Yarkand, Aksu, Khoten, Utch, Kucha, and Karashahr. 
 — M.] 
 
 ^ Before this, on our way to Lob-nor, we received seven 
 camels. 
 
 ' Altogether, during the expedition to Lob-nor, from the 
 time we left Kulja to our return thither, we lost thirty-two 
 camels by death. 
 
TULDUZ AGAIN. 129 
 
 to Kulja, to give tidings of our difficult situation, 
 and to ask for assistance. At the end of three 
 weeks fresh pack-camels and supplies arrived in 
 time to relieve our most urgent wants and revic- 
 tual our empty commissariat, the stores taken 
 from Korla having been soon exhausted, and 
 the game we shot having been our only means of 
 subsistence. 
 
 Arriving in Yulduz in the middle of May, we 
 found vegetation very backward. The sun had 
 not yet thawed the deep snow, or warmed the 
 frozen ground,* and "winter lingering, chilled the 
 lap of May." Even in the beginning of June the 
 powers of light and darkness, Ahriman and 
 Ormuz, still strove for the mastery. Mght frosts, 
 cold westerly and north-westerly winds, even 
 snow * at times retarded the early vegetation. 
 But the herbs and flowers of these regions are 
 accustomed to such drawbacks. Give them a few 
 hours' warmth in the daytime, and these children 
 of spring will not long delay in developing their 
 short-lived existence. 
 
 It is always thus in the mountains, and in 
 those of Asia in particular. Hardly had one 
 
 * In winter snow is said to fall two to foar feet thick ; on 
 the hills it is even deeper than this. The frosts are very 
 severe. In the middle of May we found on the Horeti-gol, at 
 an elevation of 8500 feet above the sea, large sheets of ice two 
 to three feet thick. 
 
 * In the latter end of May snow of considerable depth fell in 
 the mountains up to an elevation of 9000 ft. above the sea. 
 
 K 
 
130 TEAVELS TO LOB-NOE, 
 
 passed througli half of May, than with each suc- 
 ceeding day new kinds of flowers showed them- 
 selves. On all the moist mountain slopes and in the 
 valleys the wild garlic and the low-growing aconite 
 showed their yellow heads ; and, in smaller quanti- 
 ties, Pedicularis and violets began to appear. On 
 the drier ground the blue heads of the Pasque 
 flower (Pulsatilla) dotted the surface, and little 
 pink primroses lay scattered over the sides of the 
 hills. Somewhat later, on the dry, stony slopes, 
 saxifrage came into bloom, and last of all, the low, 
 prickly camel's thorn. 
 
 In the valleys and by the mountain springs, 
 wherever the sun's rays were hottest by the end 
 of May, appeared forget-me-nots, sun-dew, lady's 
 bed-straw, white and yellow dandelion, wild pea, 
 cinquefoil, stitchwort, and others. 
 
 The vegetation of the Yulduz plain is not 
 luxuriant, although its grass is mostly fit for 
 cattle. Flowers only adorned the damper ground 
 by the banks of streams, and this not in abun- 
 dance. Besides two kinds of vetches, here and there 
 bloomed the blue iris and cuckoo's tears,^ whilst the 
 dry, clayey ground was studded with the tiny white 
 blossoms of the stonecrop. These complete the 
 list. The lakes and marshes on the Baga-Yulduz- 
 gol were worse off still, for here grew no flower- 
 ing plants of any kind. Animal life was more 
 
 " [The Eussians give the name of " Cuckoo's tears " to the 
 spotted orchis (orchis maculata). — M.] 
 
SPEING AT YULDUZ. 131 
 
 abundant in Yulduz in spring than we had found 
 it in the preceding autumn. The animals were 
 the same, but the marmots had now awakened 
 from their winter's sleep, and their shrill whistle 
 was unceasingly heard in the higher valleys. 
 The increase in the numbers of birds was 
 even more remarkable, especially of the smaller 
 kinds, which here, as everywhere else, greeted 
 spring with their cheerful melody. Among the 
 stern cliffs of the alpine zone, the lively notes 
 of the hedge-sparrow (Accentor altaicus) mingled 
 now with the cluck and call of the partridge 
 {Megaloperdix nigellii ?) ; here too mountain swal- 
 lows (Ghelidon lagopoda), and flocks of grey-headed 
 finch, still unpaired, disported themselves ; and 
 the occasional note of a red-winged wall-creeper 
 might be heard. Lower in the forest belt moun- 
 tain finch and rock pipit were frequently met with ; 
 wagtail (Budytes citreoleus) and Actitis hypao- 
 leucos nested near the streams, and ruddy shel- 
 drake (Gasarca rutila) and Anser indicus among 
 the rocks. Still lower, at the entrances to the 
 valleys, and on the plain, were field larks, and 
 the stone chat (Saxieola isabellina), an exquisite 
 songster. Ducks, storks, sandpipers, gulls and 
 terns were building their nests on the marshes 
 and lakes. 
 
 Insects were not numerous in the month of 
 May, humble-bees being the commonest in the 
 alpine meadows. Flies and mosquitoes cannot 
 
 K 2 
 
132 TRAVELS TO LOB-NOE. 
 
 exist OB chilly Yulduz ; of snakes and lizards there 
 are none, and only an occasional toad or frog may 
 be caught near a marshy spring. 
 
 Early in June we crossed the Narat range, on 
 the southern slopes of which the spring flora was 
 more abundant than in Yulduz, and descended to 
 the headwaters of the Tsanma. Here the climate 
 and vegetation bore a totally dififerent aspect : 
 forests of spruce fir and thick grass two feet 
 high clothed the valley and slopes of the moun- 
 tains. Rain fell daily; the rich black soil was 
 saturated with moisture like a sponge, and we 
 found the same humidity in the neighbouring 
 valley of the Kunges, only that in the latter, 
 owing to its lower elevation, vegetation was even 
 more advanced, and flowers more profuse. 
 
 Our herbarium received considerable accessions. 
 On the other hand, contrary to our expectations, 
 comparatively few nesting birds were found either 
 on the Tsanma or Kunges, the cause probably 
 being the extremely wild nature of the country, 
 avoided by small birds ' in particular. Now, too, 
 clouds of gnats and flies made their appearance, 
 from which there was no escape day or night. 
 
 ' The most common on the Tsanma were Carpodacus erythri- 
 nus, Sylvia superciliosa, Cuculus canorus, Scolopax riistioola, 
 and Turdus viscivorus in the forests ; Crea: pratensis, Sylvia 
 cinerea, Salicaria spheiiura ? Pratincola indica in the meadow- 
 land. On the Kunges, besides those we have mentioned, must 
 be added Scops zorca, Oriolus galhula, Columha mnas, Coluinba 
 sp., Columha palmnlus, Salicaria locustella, and others. 
 
EETOEN TO KULJA — CONCLUSION. 133 
 
 On OUT excursions these horrible insects annoyed 
 us mercilessly, and the sudden change of climate 
 from dry and cold to damp and warmth, affected 
 our health unfavourably, particularly on first 
 arriving on the Kunges. 
 
 Having completed our researches here, we 
 hastened to Kulja, where we arrived in the 
 beginning of July, tired and ragged, but with a 
 rich store of scientific booty. 
 
 On looking back, I could not but feel that 
 fortune had again favoured me wonderfully. In 
 all probability had we started a year earlier, or a 
 year later, our exploration of Lob-nor would have 
 been unsuccessful ; for had it been earlier, 
 Yakub Beg, who was then neither afraid of the 
 Chinese, nor solicitous for the friendship of 
 Russia, would hardly have allowed us to pass 
 beyond the Tian Shan; whereas, had it been post- 
 poned until now, the journey would not have been 
 possible, owing to the disturbed state of affairs 
 consequent on the death of Yakub Beg. 
 
EEMARKS ON THE RESULTS OP COL. PEEJE- 
 VALSKY'S JOUENEY TO LOB-NOE AND ALTYN- 
 TAGH, BY BAEON VON EICHTHOPEN. 
 
 Six centuries ago Marco Polo told his countrymen in Venice 
 of the terrors of the desert of Lop. ■ It was the first time that 
 the European world heard of it. From Khoten the great traveller 
 journeyed via Pein and Ciarcian, whose true situation was 
 first quite recently indicated by the discernment of Colontl 
 Yule. The road led him through deserts, in the midst of 
 which those thinly populated places lay like oases at great 
 intervals. In this way he reached the town of Lop. But a 
 worse country yet remained for him to traverse. " Lop," says 
 he, " is a large town at the edge of the Desert, which is called 
 the Desert of Lop, and is situated between east and north- 
 east. It belongs to the Great Khan, and the people worship 
 Mahomet. Now such persons as propose to cross the Desert 
 take a week's rest in this town to refresh themselves and 
 their cattle ; and then they make ready for the journey, 
 taking with them a month's supply for man and beast. On 
 quitting the city they enter the Desert." For thirty days the 
 Venetian journeyed through the land of drift-sand. He de- 
 picts in lifelike colours its terrors, its trackless wastes and its 
 barrenness, which render it impossible to find the way except 
 by the bleached bones of fallen men and animals. He also 
 speaks of the strange sounds which travellers hear in the 
 night ; these are the voices of ghosts and goblins who seek to 
 lure him to ruin. 
 
 Ever since that time the " desert of Lop " has continued to 
 occupy a place in the maps of Asia. Its position, however, was 
 
136 richthopen's eemaeks. 
 
 quite unknown for some centuries ; for no European traveller 
 that we know of followed the Venetian into these remote 
 regions. In a roundabout way, however, during the last cen- 
 tury the name Lop or Lob took a more definite shape. The 
 Jesuits were wonderfully near the truth in their map of Central 
 Asia probably constructed from native sources of informa- 
 tion, and published by D'Anville in 1735 in Du Halde's 
 great work. For the first time Lob-nor appears in it as a 
 reservoir without an outlet, in which the rivers of Yarkand, 
 Kashgar, and Karashahr terminate. It is placed S.E. of 
 Turfan, in 91|° E. of Greenwich, and in 42^ N. Lat. An im- 
 portant correction was made by the Fathers D'Arocha, Espinha, 
 and Hallerstein, who were sent by Kien-long to prepare a map 
 of the districts belonging to his empire as far as the Pamir and 
 beyond the Hi. They fixed astronomically the positions of a 
 number of places, and compiled the remainder partly from itine- 
 raries and partly from Chinese maps. 
 
 At the same time many references to Lake Lob, and the 
 historical importance of the adjacent country were found in 
 Chinese literature. De Guignes was the first to collect them in 
 his great work, " The History of the Huns." Soon afterwards 
 some extraordinary views of the geographical importance of the 
 lake sprung up. The Chinese could not understand how such 
 a continual influx of water from so large a number of important 
 streams could terminate so suddenly, and thought that they 
 must take a further course and burst forth again elsewhere; and 
 a remarkable combination of circumstances enabled them to fix 
 the place where this was supposed to occur. It was a time- 
 honoured tradition that the Yellow River rose in the Kuen-lun 
 mountains. But at the time when geography received an 
 impulse during the the Han dynasty (207 B.C. — 221 a.d.) this 
 range was unknown, and the Yellow River had not been traced 
 to its source. When, therefore, General Chang-kien, on his return 
 from his expedition to the west (127 B.C.) reported that he had 
 rediscovered the Kueu-luu of the ancients to the south of 
 Yu-tien (Khoten), the startling assertion, notwithstanding its 
 boldness, was eagerly accepted. The waters flowing thence 
 must, by not less bold a conclusion, be the origin of the Yellow 
 
EICHTHOFEN S EEMAEES. 
 
 137 
 
 River. They were certainly seen to end in Lake Lob, but it 
 was self-evident that they only dived under the earth and 
 reappeared elsewhere as the Yellow Eiver in an unexplored 
 mountain region. 
 
 Afterwards the sources of this river were found in Sing-su-hai 
 or the starry sea, about 500 geographical miles from Lake 
 Lob, and about 10,000 feet higher.' But the old doctrine 
 remained unshaken, and even at the present day the Chinese 
 repeat the same theory in their Hsi-yu-ki, i.e. description of 
 western lands,' where it is stated : " To the east and south- 
 east of Lop-noor, one may see along the roads leading thither 
 either naked steppes and marshland or mountains rising abruptly 
 with snow-clad peaks, desert plains, and rivers. Innumerable 
 springs start from their sides, and these, when viewed from a 
 height, resemble a sea of stars. They are deep and burst out 
 with great force ; it is manifest that a mighty river flows under- 
 ground. On the east are sand-hills, and on the south-east a 
 sandy-steppe extending for 1000 li." The Yellow River, too, 
 rises in a wide steppe basin where the numerous lakes have 
 gained for it the name of " starry sea." 
 
 Klaproth's remarkable works first attached their full value 
 to the surveys of the Jesuits in Kien-long's time, and made 
 known in Europe all the geographical results derived from the 
 native works. His map of Central Asia, which appeared in 
 1830, was particularly useful, and served Humboldt and Eitter 
 for their work. The former deduced in a surprising way the 
 probable elevation above sea-level of several places and assigned 
 200 toises as that of Lob-nor. Its geographical position 
 was placed 3° farther west and about 2° farther south than 
 D'Anville had fixed it (viz. 885° long, east of Greenwich 
 and 40f ° north lat. at the place where the Tarim flows into it). 
 With but little variation these views held their ground, but 
 the conclusive solution of all questions appeared to be very 
 distant ; for Lob-nor lay exactly in the centre of an extensive 
 
 1 [Cf. Mongolia, ii. 180.— M.] 
 
 2 From the Hsi-yu-wonn Kim, hi (i. a. Guide to what one hears of 
 Western lands and sees there) compiled in 1773, after a translation 
 kindly made for me by Herr Himly. 
 
138 eichthopen's remarks. 
 
 region of Asia entirely beyond the reach of the European 
 explorer. 
 
 Slowly were the barriers from the west broken through. 
 After the year 1857, when Russian explorers began to investi- 
 gate the Western Tian-Shan and its river system, Johnson in 
 1866 accomplished his important journey to Ilchi, the capital 
 of Khoten ; Hayward and Shaw soon followed, and reached 
 Kashgar. Other English travellers have completed our know- 
 ledge of the tributaries which the Tarim receives from the west 
 and south-west. It became manifest that the region which 
 gives birth to this river is on a scale of grandeur such as no 
 other river in the world can boast. It is girt round by a wide 
 semicircular collar of mountains of the loftiest and grandest 
 character, often rising in ridges of 18,000 to 20,000 feet in 
 height, whilst the peaks shoot up to 25,000 and even 28,000 
 feet. The basin which fills in the horse-shoe-shaped space en- 
 compassed by these gigantic elevations, though deeply depressed 
 below them, stands at a height above the sea varying from 
 GOOO feet at the margin to about 2000 in the middle, and 
 formed the bed of an ancient sea. From its wall-like sides 
 on the south, west, and north, the waters rush headlong down, 
 and though the winds, blowing from all directions deposit 
 most of their moisture on the remoter sides of the surrounding 
 ranges, viz. the southern foot of the Himalayas, the west side 
 of the Pamir, and the northern slope of the Tian-Shan, the 
 streams formed thereby winding through the clond-capped, lofty 
 cradle-land, and breaking through the mountain chains, reach 
 the old ocean-bed only partly well-watered. The smallest of 
 them disappear in the sand, others flow some distance before 
 expanding into a level salt basin and there are absorbed. Only 
 the largest, whose number the Chinese estimate at sixty, unite 
 with the Tarim, a river 1150 miles long, and therefore in length 
 between the Ehine and the Danube, but far surpassing both 
 in the massiveness of surrounding mountains just as it exceeds 
 the Danube in the extent of its basin. Its tributaries form 
 along the foot of the mountains a number of fruitful oases, and 
 these by means of artificial irrigation have been converted into 
 flourishing, cultivated states, and have played aa important 
 part in the history of these regions. 
 
eichthofen's remarks. 139 
 
 As the westernmost of them from Keria and Khoten to 
 Kashgar became known through the above-mentioned ex- 
 plorations of Englishmen, the interest in the discovery of the 
 lake in which all these waters came to an end increased, a 
 knowledge of it appeared to be the necessary complement to 
 that of the whole of Eastern Turkestan. Hence the inquiries 
 made by travellers from the west had a particular object. 
 Some of these latter have compiled itineraries by means of which 
 the positions of places mentioned by Marco Polo on the way to 
 Lob-nor were in part determined. 
 
 The testimony of eye-witnesses acquainted us with the 
 existence of a place called Lob as well as a lake of that name 
 containing a great many fish. But many points of the problem 
 remained doubtful, amongst these was the geographical position 
 of the lake, although it could be gathered approximately from 
 the number of days' journey which it took to reach it by 
 various routes. 
 
 Shaw allowed too little for the day's journey and far too 
 much for the windings of the road, and so arrived at the con- 
 clusion that the lake must lie 4^ to 5 degrees of longitude 
 more to the west than its position on our maps.' Yule almost 
 on a similar basis reduced the western displacement to 3°, 
 whilst to others it seemed doubtful, partly on account of these 
 uncertain elements of calculation, and partly because of the 
 credibility of the authorities upon which the maps of the 
 Jesuits were based. The relative configuration of the ground 
 was another uncertainty. The elevation above sea-level of the 
 lake might be assumed to be probably about 2000 feet, but 
 opinions widely differed as to the character of the surrounding 
 country. Till within a few months ago tbe prevailing opinion 
 led one to suppose that the lake lay in an immense basin and 
 farther removed from its southern rampart than from that on 
 the north. Without a suiEcient regard for Chinese sources of 
 information, nearly all existing maps gave the diameter of the 
 
 ■^ Shaw reckoned the daj's journey at twenty miles (Proc. E. G. S. 
 xvi. ]i. 243) and deducted about one-third for windings, making the net 
 amount covered per diem at thirteen miles (eleven and a half geographical 
 miles), ■whereas twenty-one geographical miles or seventy Chinese li and 
 one-seventh for windings is a truer allowance, making the distance per 
 diem eighteen geographical miles. 
 
140 eichthopen's remarks. 
 
 basin from north, to south at about 330 geographical miles. On 
 the other hand the aoaompanying map,^ compiled from Chinese 
 information, advances the mountainous country south of Lob- 
 nor to beyond the 39th parallel, and reduces the width of the 
 open basin in 88° long, to about 100 geographical miles. 
 
 Prejevalsky then had to settle questions of considerable 
 interest. He had been attracted to the subject on his journey 
 in Tsaidam when he had crossed a river, by following which 
 up stream one would arrive at a country where the wild camel 
 still existed, and reach Lob-nor without difficulty. He there- 
 fore determined to devote his next expedition to the solution of 
 the geographical and zoological questions here awaiting him. 
 
 His accomplishment of this journey of which we now possess 
 a detailed account, is one of the most important geographical 
 feats of modern times. Taking his discoveries one by one, I 
 shall often have to refer in the course of my remarks to the 
 Chinese map. This is the well-known great map of China and 
 Central Asia which appeared in the year 1862 in Wu-chang-fu, 
 whilst for the rendering of the names I am indebted to Herr 
 Carl Himly, whose extensive knowledge of languages enabled 
 me to interpret the meaning of many of them. 
 
 1. Little Yulduz Plateau. — From Chinese maps and records, 
 it appears that the Tian-Shan system is divided into parallel 
 chains running from W. by S. and E. by N., by two plateaux, 
 having a direction of W.N.W. and E.S.E., and known as the 
 little and great Yulduz plateaux {Kntshuk Yulduz and Angba 
 Yulduz). It was also known that along the first of these lay a 
 road formerly much frequented, and that it was covered with 
 rich pasturage. It appears to have been inhabited by a pastoral 
 people, who were easily annihilated or expelled by invading 
 hosts, so that at times the pasture-grounds were entirely 
 deserted. In the fifteenth century the embassy sent by Shah 
 Bukh, the son of Timur, to the court of China, took their out- 
 ward journey through Yulduz, and the physician of the embassy 
 has left us a description of the scenery. The Chinese often 
 mention both of these high valleys, and inform us that Yulduz 
 
 * [An engraving of thia map, from a tracing' kindly sent me by Baron 
 Eiohthofeu, accompanies this volume. — M.] 
 
eichthopbn's ebmaekr. 141 
 
 signifies " Star." Prejevalsky confirms generally earlier informa- 
 tion and gives us a very complete picture of the nature of this 
 high valley. Prom the valley of the Kunges,which he followed up 
 to a height of 4000 feet ahove the sea, he crossed, by a pass 6000 
 feet high, to the equally elevated valley of the Tsanma, which to 
 the south was shut in by the Narat, a mountain chain of alpine 
 character. A moderately steep ascent led him to the summit 
 of the Narat pass, 9800 feet high, whence he very gradually 
 descended to the lower end of Lesser Yolduz, 7000 to 8000 feet 
 above sea-level, which was deserted, owing to the Dungan war, 
 although eleven years ago the Turgutes, numbering 10,000 
 kebitkas, had nomadized here. A lofty range rising above the 
 snow-line, running from W.N.W. to E.S.E., divides Lesser from 
 Greater Yulduz. On the northern side the system of parallel 
 ranges to the Tian-Shan appears to set in. A road lies hence 
 to Urumtsi, and, according to Chinese maps, seems to cross the 
 principal chain of the Tengri-ula, by the pass of Ulan-sadah- 
 dabaghan. On the north, where Prejevalsky places a chain, 
 OdonTcure, the Chinese map has a pass of a similar name, the 
 Odonghv/r-dabaghan. The inhabitants appear to be acquainted 
 with the names of the passes to the south, as the four names 
 given by Prejevalsky are coupled with the word dabcm. To 
 the east, according to the Chinese map, two passes lead from 
 the plateau, the SabsMl-dabaghan, or " ravine pass," and the 
 Dalwn^dabaghan, or " seventy passes." Judging from the 
 position and description, Prejevalsky's route lay over the 
 former, the height of which is set down at 9300 feet. The 
 ascent was gentle, the descent led through steep, rooky ravines. 
 The gorge of the Sabtsagai-gol is forty versts long; and 
 probably answers to the KkabtsJiil-ghool of the Chinese map. 
 It is followed by that of the Balgantai-gol, twenty -two versts 
 long, and this brought the traveller to the Kaidu, at a height 
 of 3400 feet above sea-level. 
 
 The slopes on the southern side, unlike those on the north, are 
 bereft of all vegetation. "The neighbouring desert," says 
 Prejevalsky, " affixes the seal of death on this side of the Tian- 
 Shan, and the last drops of moisture are wrung out by the 
 snowy mountains of Yulduz." 
 
142 hicbthopen's eemarks. 
 
 2. The KurugTi-tagTi range. — Without visiting the town of 
 Karashahr and the great lake, Bostang-nor,° in its vicinity, into 
 which the Kaidu-gol empties, the traveller turned southward, 
 and here fell in with " the arid and sterile Kurugh-tagh 
 range, of no great elevation." Till now it was marked on our 
 maps as the Kurimgle-tah, a name derived from the town of 
 Korla or Kurungle, situated on its southern side, towards 
 which the route lay. The Kaidu-gol, shortly after leaving the 
 lake, forces its way through the chain " by an exceedingly 
 narrow ravine, ten versts long." The Chinese MSS. have de- 
 scribed it in their favourite romantic way of expressing them- 
 selves. I borrow from one of them ^ the following extract : — 
 
 " The river flows for 100 li in a south-westerly direction, turns 
 and flows south, through the mountains, and for a short dis- 
 tance beyond them, and then turns to the west. Here it flows 
 past some old coal-mines, opened in 1815 by the Grovernor 
 Yung-kung-kiu, continuing a little way further west, about 
 half a li to the south of Kalghi-aman-lcintai.'" 
 
 This is one of the forts described by Prejevalsky. " The 
 river now enters the narrow, inhospitable gorge," which is 
 depicted in very gloomy and picturesque language by the Chinese 
 author. This important ravine in the history of the Chinese 
 conquerors bore for a time the name of Tie-men-hwan, i. e. 
 "Pass of the iron gate." On the south side stands another clay- 
 built fort. Soon afterwards the town of Korla is reached, which 
 our traveller was obliged to go round. According to Chinese 
 reports it lies 150 li S.W. of Karashahr, and has a population 
 of 700 families. The inhabitants are described as lazy, idle, 
 quarrelsome, and unpolished. The products of the region are 
 rice, corn, grapes, melons, and fruit, besides fish, crawfish, wild 
 geese, ducks, herons, &c. 
 
 These explorations throw light on the strategical importance 
 of the Kurugh-tagh pass, and on an episode of Chinese history. 
 Immediately N.E. of Kalgha-aman, and probably a little 
 
 * Prejevalsky calls it Baga/rash, tlie name in the text being taken from 
 the Chinese map. 
 
 * Hsi-yu-shui-taji-hi (i. e. inventory of the water streams of the Western 
 lands). It seems to have been compiled in the year 1821 by Hsu-sung. 
 
eichthopbn's eemaeks. 143 
 
 on one side of our traveller's road, the Chinese map gives 
 " Euins of an old town." Here stood, as we learn from an old 
 source of information, the ancient Vlui-chong, which at 
 the time of the Han dynasty was the seat of the Governor- 
 General of the lands of Hsi-yu, i. e. for the whole of Eastern, 
 sometimes too for Western Turkestan, and the whole country as 
 far as the Caspian Sea. The distances of all places on the 
 West, mentioned in the Han annals, are computed from 
 Ului, as the most important place. We now see, after 
 Prejevalsky has acquainted us with the physical character of 
 those regions, that this was the most suitable place to afibrd 
 military protection to the caravan roads south of Lob-nor, 
 from the plundering and unruly tribes on the southern slope of 
 the Tian-Shan. 
 
 3. Character of the desert. — ^Along the southern slope of the 
 Kurugh-tagh lies a belt of country, twenty to twenty-five versts 
 wide, covered with pebble and gravel. Prejevalsky assumed it 
 to be the shore of a former sea. Beyond it lies " the boundless 
 plain of the Tarim or Lob-nor desert," having a twofold character, 
 i. e. consisting of a thin loam impregnated with salt on the 
 west and of drift-sand on the east. 
 
 4. These points, however, do not call for any remarks, but 
 with regard to the river system the map south of Korla 
 assumes an entirely new aspect. Only the great western 
 bend of the Kaidu, which Prejevalsky here calls the Koncheh- 
 daria, was hitherto known, and perhaps as a more important river 
 than it is now represented. This river does not, however, at 
 present reach the Tarim, as the Chinese maps show f° south 
 of Korla, but after turning again to the east, directs its course 
 far away 'from it before entering the intricate network of the 
 Tarim channels. Whilst Korla has to be moved only 5' farther 
 north and 8' farther west, than hitherto supposed, other 
 positions have to be considerably altered, and Lob-nor should 
 be placed contrary to Shaw's argument considerably to the 
 south-east. The hydrography, as far as Prejevalsky learnt it, 
 is shown on his map ; but I will presently return to the 
 question, whether it be probable that he has represented the 
 whole river system. 
 
144 eichthofbn's heiiaeks. 
 
 5. The Altyn-tagTi Mountains. — This is the most surprising of- 
 the discoveries of Prejevalsky, for it was generally supposed 
 that there was an extensive tract of low country continuing 
 through several degrees of Latitude to the south of the lake. 
 But we now learn of a lofty range rising almost abruptly from 
 the deepest part of the depression, visible at a distance of 150 
 versts, and on nearer approach taking the form of a gigantic wall 
 (vide supra, p. 80). The discovery of this range is important both 
 for geography and for the history of Central Asian intercourse. 
 We can now understand why the old silk traders in their route 
 to the western countries passed so close to the south of Lob-nor, 
 although the dreadful desert lay between Sha-chau and the lake, 
 for to the south the passage was blocked by mountains ; a road 
 lay in that direction as well, but it was probably little used 
 on account of the difficulties it presented. It is clear armies 
 and trade caravans always marched through the kingdom of 
 Leu-Ian or Shen-shen, on the south shore of the lake. A new 
 light too is now thrown on several passages of ancient history 
 which were hitherto obscure. When the Chinese first turned 
 their attention to the west, during the Han dynasty, Chang- 
 kien, on his return in 127 B.C., from his remarkable expedition 
 to Ferghana and the Oxus lands, found the whole country 
 as far as ' the salt lake,' i. e. Lob-nor, occupied by the Huns, 
 whose territory at that time covered wide tracts of Mongolia. 
 He therefore endeavoured on his return to make a way 
 through the territory which to the south joins the Tibetan pro- 
 vince of Kiang, so as to avoid again falling into the hands of 
 the Huns as he had done on the way out. Shortly after, in 
 the years 121 and 119 B.C., Chinese troops under the command 
 of the youthful General Ho-kiu ping penetrated for the first time 
 into the regions to the west, and found the right wing of the 
 Huns settled on the salt lake and the Ping-nan Mountains (i. e. 
 the mountainous region south of the plain). This was incom- 
 prehensible as long as extensive plains were believed to lie to 
 the south of the lake ; whereas it is now evident that the Altyn- 
 tagh opposed a natural barrier to their further advance, and 
 that owing to their position at the foot of this range they 
 must have completely controlled communications with tluf 
 
■i-Mrfu'^"'' 
 
 Keira shahr^ 
 
 C^i: 
 
 J *p ll ■ \ Thi' j-iasitwn of Lcikf BiUi<»rt .^^h- w npffan/iinte from uiibniuitivn 
 ir,is/i,iJu- tr Yakuhheij at Forlti m- li^T". 
 
 '''*¥>J 
 
 Forts^ 
 
 Korla 
 
 Cterh' tin [ Kcrlii I 
 Bas?i . iniz I 
 
 
 -■°IU 
 
 B ost 
 
 k-Ku 
 
 •■"»^^^^^H 
 
 n,n liuii. 
 
 
 
 If!^^4~'i^'i. 
 
 Eutrnct lail V. """^^ 
 
 I i;' -uor 
 
 'ao 
 
 '/■*■? "3'i''l!<\ S"e hrrJic-r tx> tht East l\e Ktjruktmih. u Uist in the 
 
 ^v ^l^w^'-' •'^a/ui & day fuUocks 
 
 ,~.—..~^ ,'— — - 'L-I'i' 
 
 TaAtiy 
 
 £.>i2£l, 
 
 '-'-.KyrV. 
 
 
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 ^■r 
 
 "--xi. 
 
 l.op-tshoj' 
 
 \LttpiHif 
 
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 r s 
 
 
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 t^LaJa 
 
 
 A.>' '."■'" 
 
 wUhoutnnnte- fjfi'hijbly .ffmrwiutj 
 
 MAP 
 
 sliowing' conijiai'isou helwct-Ti 
 
 CHINESE AND PRE JEVAL SKY'S 
 GEOGRAPHY 
 
 from tracings by Baron Richthofen 
 
 PivifYnhlfy's Map _ Black 
 
 Oi in est* Map _ ___. ^ Red 
 
 rmojrrajjhloJ Mill's 
 
 /• 
 
 
 
 rfj.' 
 
 ofrhe DeserC, (Ju^Tsa^'utfonuaticn) 
 
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 BaraXarai ^WlSt, im*;;.-) 
 
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 A, lijan. / "^' 
 
 
 41 
 
 r UlU;. 
 
 Toths NE. m. m?/if,.- clt.:itmtuui Tilth. sanJi r,rimj. 
 fbr a.yetU. disi aiux . ( hairsay udirrmalum. ) 
 
 
 
 
 
 S u. m t <!■ 
 
 hJUochs iif driA sand &of 
 
 f/jy>t»<i7^i almnsf- 1/^ t}y Ij^wn 
 
 Sfui thijji (luarsay ijifinfn'itt<"t ) 
 
 
 
 
 ^' 
 
 A 1 t y 
 
 
 iSia^^fij 
 
 Lun^^mde East H9 rrum <!lrw"Jiwir]i 
 
 Londt'Ti iSanipsiw A<nv <<• />?. 
 
 EJwfWeller ,R€d.Zion.S<juare 
 
richthofen's eemarks. 146 
 
 west for armies and trade caravans. Similar considerations are 
 suggested by the later Chinese wars with Central Asia. 
 
 6. Loh-nor. — It is remarkable that Prejevalsky found the last 
 reservoir of the Tarim much farther south than the maps and 
 Chinese information placed it, and that the water was fresh 
 instead of salt. The Tarim discharges, according to the repre- 
 sentation, in 39i° N. Lat. and 89° E. Long., into a lake named 
 Kara-buran, but again issues from its farther end, and forms a 
 second lake, the Chon-kul or Kara-koshun. [Vide page 98.] 
 
 The first lake (Kara-buran) is, according to his description, 
 only a preliminary basin, whose water must be the same as that 
 in the river, and only undergoes change in summer, owing to 
 evaporation. But the statement about the second basin, which 
 answers to the true Lob-nor, and must be the last evaporating 
 reservoir of the Tarim, is most surprising. The region through 
 which the Tarim flows is highly charged with salt, springs of sweet 
 water are rare, and only appear on the borders of the mountains ; 
 even in the high mountains the basins mostly contain salt, and 
 in many valleys of the Altyn-tagh, at a height of 11,000 feet, 
 Prejevalsky found the water brackish. The water of the Tarim 
 must therefore contain a larger proportion of salt than any other 
 of the larger rivers of the world ; and the unusual amount of 
 evaporation, continued through a great many centuries, must 
 have produced a very large deposit of steppe salts of all kinds. 
 The Chinese from ancient times have called Lob-nor the salt 
 lake {kolt e^ox^v), in contradistinction to the many other salt 
 lakes of smaller size. Contrary to theoretical deductions and 
 historical records, we now learn from the first European ex- 
 plorer who has visited the lake, that its water is sweet. Let us 
 endeavour to suggest some explanations. 
 
 In winter, when the evaporation is only slight, the river 
 coursing rapidly down to the lake might be expected to difiuse 
 sweet water over the strongly condensed alkali. But, on the 
 other hand, the insignificant depth of the lake would scarcely 
 allow of a dispersion of the salt. A second explanation can be 
 found in the supposition that the reservoir of the waters of the 
 Tarim has undergone changes as to position. Just as rivers 
 in China periodically change their courses, the Tarim may at 
 
 L 
 
146 eiohthofen's remarks. 
 
 different times, have -filled parts of the saline, clay steppe with its 
 overflow, and this becomes all the more probable on reading the 
 interesting description which Prejevalsky gives of recent occur- 
 rences in the river-bed of the Tarim [vide p. 99]. Particularly 
 worthy of attention is the up-raising of the river-bed like that 
 of the Po and Hoang-ho, above the surrounding plain ; allowing 
 the natives to draw off the water for fishing purposes, [vide 
 p. 102], and assisting the river to change its course by bursting 
 through its embankments at flood times. In this way the 
 Tarira may have left its easterly channel, as hitherto marked 
 on our maps, and the present river flowing to the south-east, with 
 the two lake basins at its end, perhaps from the neighbourhood 
 of Akhtarma, may be of comparatively recent origin. In such 
 case, the earlier lake bed had a more northerly situation than 
 at present, and became dried up in course of time. 
 
 A third and likelier explanation is that besides the two water 
 basins seen by Prejevalsky, there remains a third communicating 
 ■with the Tarim by an arm. A wide experience of Chinese maps, 
 has taught me that although wanting in practical detail, nothing 
 is ever laid down that does not actually exist. Now if we con- 
 sider that the positions of the towns of Karashahr and Korla, as 
 marked on those maps, are only slightly altered by the new 
 observations, and that the districts to the south are placed 
 according to their relative position and distance from both those 
 places, we may impose some confidence in the accuracy of the 
 Chinese delineation of this region. From the place where on 
 Prejevalsky's map the Ugen-daria unites with the Tarim, with 
 reference to its distance from Korla on the Chinese map, a road 
 (certainly identical with that taken by Prejevalsky) leads across 
 the Tarim's eastern course away in a southerly direction. 
 Whilst Prejevalsky places the river to the south of this road, 
 the Chinese map takes no notice of such a channel, but con- 
 tinues the Tarim nearly east to a great lake, not marked by 
 Prejevalsky, which (if shifted to agree with the displacement of 
 Korla) wiU be intersected in its one-third northern part by the 
 41st parallel. This lake is called on the Chinese map Lop-chor 
 or Lop-noor; and to the north and south of it are situated seven 
 smaller lakes, the northern of which are called tsan-hu (grass or 
 
eichthofen's remabks. 147 
 
 reed-lakes), whilst those on the south hiave various names. The 
 map also shows farther to the south-east, and wholly unconnected 
 with the Tarim, another lake called Khas-omo,the centre of which 
 is ahout 3° east and lf° south of Korla, not far from where Pre- 
 jevalsky places Kara-koshun.' The question suggests itself if 
 this Khas-lake does not answer to the black Koshun of Pre- 
 jevalsky.^ 
 
 This would involve the following, that the Tarim formerly 
 had only one easterly course to the true great Loi-nor, hut 
 later at the place where it is now joined ly the Ugen-daria, it 
 threw off a iranch to the S.M which became the main river ; 
 and that this branch discharged into the once isolated Khas-lahe, 
 enlarged it and made it the chief reservoir. 
 
 Many arguments may be adduced in support of this presump- 
 tion besides those already mentioned. 
 
 (a) The Chinese map represents plains south of Lob-nor, but 
 mountains south of the Khas-lake, and these with reference to 
 the positions of Prejevalsky's lake and Korla occupy the same 
 place that the Altyn-tagh mountains do. 
 
 (i) South of Khas-lake the main road to the east leads in the 
 direction of Sha-chau, and from it another branches off south- 
 ward to Tibet, just as on Prejevalsky's map both roads are placed 
 to the south of Kararkoshun. 
 
 ' The Chinese map to which we have referred gives a second and 
 nameless la,ke west of Khas-omo. But as none of the earlier maps have 
 it, and as it corresponds in almost every respect to Khas-omo, it is pro- 
 bable that owing to some error the latter lake has been delineated twice 
 over. Though I know of no other instance of the kind, I conjectured 
 this to have been an error even before Prejevalsky's journey, inserting 
 both lakes, however reluctantly, on the map accompanying my work on 
 China. 
 
 * It must always be a matter of uncertainty if similarity of sound 
 denotes true etymological afBnity. " Khas-omo " is Mongolian and means 
 Nephrite or Jade lake, probably to betoken the colour of the water, 
 perhaps too referring to the commerce in Jade which centered in this 
 region. The Turks pronounce it Kaah — " Kara-Kash " is a common 
 kind of jade— and " Kara-Koshun " may have been derived from the 
 Mongolian " Khas." On the other hand the Chinese write the name of 
 the district Kara-ho-ohau (pronounced Kara-Kodsho). It should be 
 observed, however, that this name is very generally applied to various 
 Mahommedan districts, e.g. to one S.B. of Turfan. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 RTCHTHOFEN S EEMAEKS. 
 
 (c) Prejevalsky found that the name of Lob-nor was not applied 
 to either of his lakes, although, from the inquiries of Shaw, 
 Forsyth, and others, it is well known far and wide. But he 
 met with it, evidently without learning its exact meaning, at 
 that part of the Tarim to the east of which the true Lob-nor 
 must lie. 
 
 (d) Concurrent historical notices oii the former trade-routes 
 from China to the west point with certainty to the conclusion 
 that the region of the true Lob-nor was undisturbed by them, 
 and that they crossed much farther to the south and west of 
 Khas-omo, so that there, and not at Lob, lie the kingdoms of 
 Leulan, Shen-shen, &c., which are named in history as situated 
 near "the salt-lake." 
 
 (e) A last and weighty argument is furnished by the only 
 hydrographical measurements taken by Prejevalsky of the rivers 
 observed by him. Taking the fathom at six feet he found : — 
 
 
 Breadth in 
 
 Depth in 
 
 Velocity of 
 
 
 feet. 
 
 feet. 
 
 current. 
 
 1. Koncheh-daria 
 
 42-60 
 
 10-14 
 
 ? 
 
 2. Inchikeh-daria 
 
 ? 
 
 ? 
 
 ? 
 
 3. Ugen-daria . 
 
 48-60 
 
 ? 
 
 ? 
 
 4. Tarim, at the mouth of 1 
 Ugen-daria . . J 
 
 300-360 
 
 20 
 
 rapid 
 
 5. Tarim, below the con-') 
 
 
 
 
 fluence of all its > 
 
 180-210 
 
 21 
 
 moderate. 
 
 feeders . . .) 
 
 
 
 
 6. Tarim, between the two ") 
 lakes . . . 3 
 
 125 
 
 14 1 
 
 170 feet per 
 minute. 
 
 It appears, then, that the united river only brings down a 
 part (probably less than half) of the aggregate volume of water 
 contained in all its branches. Even at the time of the greatest 
 summer heat, such a diminution, owing to excessive evaporation, 
 would be difficult to explain ; but since the observations were 
 made in winter, when the temperature during the day never rose 
 above freezing-point, and at night fell below zero Fahr., evapora- 
 tion could have nothing to do with it. 
 
eiohthopen's ebmaeks. 149 
 
 Now Prejevalsky's route lay between two separate arms of 
 the river, it is therefore possible that the eastern arm discharges 
 part of its water by a channel not seen by him, flowing east- 
 wards to an impassable salt desert to which the name Lob-nor 
 heard by him, but so mysteriously passed over, may refer. 
 
 If it may be assumed as a certainty that a sweet-water lake, 
 which lies in a steppe of saline loam, and does not serve as a 
 passage for a river like Kara-buran, but allows the water it 
 receives to evaporate, must be of recent origin, our argu- 
 ment with reference to Prejevalsky's Kara-koshun will be 
 confirmed. 
 
 We must picture to ourselves the Khas-lake as in former times 
 a small salt-water basin fed by tributaries from the Altyn-tagh 
 and by the Cherchen-daria, and the considerable extension of 
 its area by the irruption of the Tarim, at a comparatively recent 
 period owing to a deflection from its earlier and only eastern 
 course. 
 
 The saline morasses on its banks seem to be the remains of 
 its earlier condition. This appears to be the most natural 
 explanation, and it is moreover confirmed by the uncertainty of 
 the later Chinese descriptions. Now they speak of a lake with 
 a circumference of 400 li. Again Lob-nor is said to be a district 
 which it took an army (under Kien-long) two months to march 
 round, and that it consists of steppes and marshy tracts. The 
 whole region too is represented by lakes and salt bogs. 
 
 Highly as we must value that which Prejevalsky has accom- 
 plished for the exploration of Lob-nor, we cannot yet consider 
 the problem for which he has endured such hardships as finally 
 solved. 
 
 7. Inhabitants of Lob-nor district and, political relations. — 
 Disconnected reports have from time to time come down to us 
 of the existence of one or more states south of Lake Lob. These 
 states attained their highest pitch of prosperity during the Han 
 dynasty ; for then, as we have said, the traffic to the West 
 passed wholly, or at all events in a great measure, through 
 this region. The first to become acquainted with them from 
 China was Chang-kien. In his report to the Emperor, he 
 says, " On the salt lake lie the unwalled places and towns 
 
150 eichthofen's eemaeks. 
 
 of Leu-Ian and Ku-shi,' 5000 li distant from Chang-ngan 
 (then the capital of China)." They were at that time under the 
 dominion of the Huns, and immediately to the south lay the 
 Tibetan province of Kiang. Soon afterwards, when the Huns 
 were driven out, this district, together with the whole basin of 
 the Tarim, fell into the hands of the Chinese, who, with the 
 exception of a short interval, continued masters of the country 
 for more than two centuries. 
 
 Little mention is made of Kushi, but the ancient annals 
 and those of the later Han dynasty often refer to the kingdom 
 of Leu-Ian. In the former we find that " Leu-Ian is reckoned 
 to contain about 1500 families. The people go in search of 
 pasturage to supply their camels, horses, and asses ; they 
 obtain their means of subsistence from the neighbouring coun- 
 tries : their habits are the same as those of the Tibetans, their 
 neighbours on the south. Precious stones, reeds, pasturage, and 
 diflFerent kinds of trees are found there." ' In later times the 
 little kingdom was called by the Chinese Shen-shen, and under 
 that name it is often mentioned. Tu-ni was the residence of 
 the prince. It appears that the new name comprised a much 
 larger district, for it is stated that 14,000 families and 3000 
 troops were included in it. The lake, though generally marked 
 as the salt lake, is at times also mentioned as Pului-hai (after a 
 place of that name), Pu-chang-hai, and so on. 
 
 After the downfall of the Han dynasty in the west, we hear 
 little more of the small state at Lob. Its only visitors were 
 occasional Buddhist pilgrims on their journeys to Turan and 
 India, who have left merely short notices of it behind them. lu 
 899 A.D. Fa-hian travelled through it. " Many evil spirits," he 
 says, " are there, and burning sirocco winds which kill all who 
 encounter them ; neither birds are to be seen in the air, nor 
 animals on the land. There are no other means of findins the 
 
 o 
 
 road than by guiding oneself by the bones of those who have 
 
 ^ Considering the very small number of names with which we have to 
 deal here, the recurrence of analogous designations is of course not acci- 
 dental. We are able to place Kushi at Khas, and Koshun, and hence 
 infer that the Mongolian tribe of the Khoshotes had their proper seat at 
 Lob-nor. 
 
 ' Tsien-Haa-shn, after De Guignes' History of the Huns, i. p. 14 
 
eichthopen's bemaeks. 161 
 
 perished there." Of the little state itself, he reports, " The 
 country of Shen-shen is mountainous and uneven, the soil hare 
 and unfruitful, and the manners of the inhahitants as rude as 
 their clothing, resembling, however, those of the Chinese. 
 The people are Buddhists, about 4000 of them being priests." 
 The similarity of their customs to those of the Chinese, which 
 impressed itself upon the traveller, is doubtless due to the 
 ascendency of the latter, and to their frequent journeys along 
 the great trade routes of those days. That the population had 
 considerably increased is evident from the circumstance of there 
 being four thousand priests ; although the ascetic monks may 
 have considered the little country, or the neighbouring moun- 
 tain range, from its desert character, peculiarly sacred, and 
 suitable for the site of a convent. A short mention is made 
 of the country by the Samaneans, Hwei-Sung and Sung-yun, 
 who in the year 518 travelled through it on their journey to 
 the west, and the next to teU us of it is Pei-kiu (607), who was 
 sent by the last princes of the Sui dynasty to Kan-chau-fu, at 
 that time the focus of the Central Asian trade with China, to 
 obtain information concerning the roads along which the mer- 
 chandise of the different countries was carried, in order to 
 prepare for further conquests. He found that there were three 
 great trade routes, two of which followed the same direction as far 
 as Lob, before dividing into a northern and southern road, whilst 
 the third led via Hami. In the year 645 the greatest of all 
 the Buddhist pilgrims, Hwen-thsang, returned from India. De- 
 tailed as aUhis descriptions are of every other part of his journey, 
 he gives only a scanty report of the last places he visited, and 
 contents himself in the Lob-nor region with the bare mention of 
 Nafopo, answering to the ancient Leu-Ian. Stan. Julien has 
 shown that this is a name of Indian origin, which probably for 
 some time took the place of the older nomenclature.' The 
 annals of the Tang dynasty, as far as they are known, scarcely 
 notice these countries on Lob-nor, and from 750 they are almost 
 forgotten, owing to the decline of the Chinese power in the west. 
 
 2 [Col. Tule says that it looks like Sanscrit, and, if so, carries ancient 
 Indian influence to the verge of the great Gobi. Ma/rco Polo, 2nd ed. vol. 
 i. 204— M.] 
 
152 RICHTHOJi'EN's EBMAEKS. 
 
 Once, in the year 940, an emperor sent an embassy to the King 
 of Yu-tien (Khoten), to claim him as a vassal, showing how 
 far the influence of the Chinese had fallen. The difficult and 
 dangerous journey lasted two years, and only after five years' 
 stay did the envoys attempt the return journey. On the way 
 back they followed their former route as far as Tun-hwang ; 
 but between this place and Yu-tien places are named which 
 have never been mentioned either before or since, leading us 
 to infer that, in consequence of the dangers caused by hostile 
 tribes, a more southerly road, to which I shall presently return, 
 was pioneered. 
 
 The extraordinary rapidity with which the Mohammedan 
 religion spread over Central Asia may have been one of the 
 reasons for the complete ebb of information in the eighth cen- 
 tury concerning the roads leading past Lob-nor, for the road 
 via, Hami and along the southern foot of the Tian-shan, now 
 came into more and more exclusive use. And the constant pro- 
 cess of desiccation going on in the oases situated along the 
 southern margin of the Tarim basin appears also to have 
 diverted the great trade from them. Even from so early a 
 period as the Mongol supremacy we have no record of any 
 Chinese travellers in these countries. Most of them took a 
 much more northerly route. Thus it happens that the next in- 
 formation we receive is from the west — -from no less a personage 
 than Marco Polo, " the Prince of mediseval travellers," who in 
 1272 explored the above-mentioned route through the desert of 
 Lob. In his narrative, too, the little country of Lob appears as 
 an oasis, which broke the journey through the desert. Shah 
 Rukh's envoys give us a similar idea of it, for they also journeyed 
 homeward through the country on Lake Lob. 
 
 And this brings us to modern times. Some of Kang-hi's (1 662 
 — 1723) campaigns, and the great conquests of Kien-long (1736 
 — 1796), again directed attention to the west. More geogra- 
 phical works appeared in which the countries on Lake Lob are 
 often described. Only a few of these treatises have been translated 
 into European languages, and amongst them the Hsi-yu-wunn- 
 kien-lu, written in 1723, to which we have referred. In it we 
 find, " Two places, each of 500 houses, are situated on the 
 
eichthopen's eemaeks. 153 
 
 lake." The inhabitants occupy themselves neither with agricul- 
 ture nor with rearing cattle, but only in fishing ; they make fur 
 coats of swan's-down, weave linen of wild hemp, and bring their 
 fish to the town of Korla for sale. They will neither eat bread 
 nor meat, because it disagrees with them ; they speak the Turkish 
 language,but are not Mohammedans." ' The last statement, which 
 is manifestly incorrect, may have originated in the circumstance 
 that the Mohammedans were unwilling to recognize as their co- 
 religionists the uncivilized inhabitants of the lake region because 
 of their lax observance of their religious rites. 
 
 A later work * gives remarkable particulars founded on a 
 report dated in the sixth year of the Emperor Kien-long (1741). 
 After mentioning that Lake Lob has a great circumference, and 
 that forty years ago it took an army two months to march 
 round it, it is stated that the country is divided into two dis- 
 tricts, viz. Kara-kul and Kara-kodsho. The whole region is 
 under three Begs. The people eat no corn, but live on fish ; 
 they weave raiments of wild hemp, and have no similarity of 
 language with other Turks ; they attain a great age, often 
 exceeding a hundred years. There are now living 2160 men 
 and women, and 200 of the former are enrolled in banners, i. e. 
 do military service. It takes not quite one month to go from 
 Tun-hwang to the lake. There is one more account of the 
 twenty-third year of Kien-long (1758), in which it is stated 
 that of 2000 people who had formerly lived here, only 600 now 
 were left. , 
 
 All these notices, scattered through a period of 2000 years, 
 give us in the main a nearly identical representation. A small 
 people, at times numbering several thousand souls, at others 
 again diminishing to a few hundreds, live completely cut off 
 from the rest of the world in the midst of extensive deserts, 
 near a great salt lake, which is the distinguishing feature of the 
 district. Peculiar physical conditions hitherto difficult of expla- 
 nation, caused their little country, up to the seventh century a 
 converging point for the trade routes, to become more and more 
 isolated as these fell into disuse, and in course of time to be less 
 
 ' According to Hyacinthe's translation in Timkowski's travels, i. 396. 
 ■• The abovo-mentioned Hsi-yu-sliui-tau-ki. 
 
154 eichthofen's remakes. 
 
 visited. The inhabitants, in common with the rest of the people 
 of the Tarim basin, changed their religion, first to Buddhism and 
 then to Islamism. Politically they always voluntarily placed 
 themselves under the ruling power for the time being, seldom 
 subject to Khoten, sometimes under Chinese dominion, and in 
 the intermediate periods probably exchanging their dependence 
 from one to the other of the more northerly situated oasis-states. 
 Of their mode of life we are only told that they kept horses, 
 asses, and camels. Much later we hear of their fishing, which 
 afterwards came to be their chief source of livelihood. With 
 regard to the exact locality, we are always referred to the same 
 district, for it is particularly stated that the various names, such 
 as Leu-Ian, Shen-shen, Nafopo, are included in it, and here and 
 there the distances from other places are given, so that the posi- 
 tion can be approximately determined. The most detailed in 
 this respect are the notices on Leu-Ian, dating from the Han 
 dynasty. They lead us particularly to the conclusion that 
 the little kingdom lay to the south or south-west of Khas-omo 
 of the Chinese maps, i. e. Prejevalsky's Kararkoshun, but that 
 the immediate environs of the great salt lake were uninhabited. 
 
 The report of an eye-witness of European culture, and endowed 
 with a rare spirit of inquiry, concerning so peculiarly situated a 
 people must claim our special attention. At one stroke the peo- 
 ple of Lob-nor have been placed within reach of our immediate 
 knowledge, and we find them so little changed from the picture 
 history has given of them, that Prejevalsky's description often 
 sounds like an echo of the most ancient Chinese records. 
 As their geographers of the last century represented, so also 
 he found the population divided for administrative purposes 
 into two divisions ; the Kara-kultsi (so called after Kara- 
 kul, a western lake of the Tarim), living on the lower Tarim, 
 and the Kara-kurchintsi, inhabiting the lakes. The former 
 number 1200, the latter are now reduced to 300, but a short 
 time ago amounted to 550 families. [Vide supra, p. 105.] 
 
 Prejevalsky's description of the people, their character, man- 
 ners, customs, and occupations, as well as their sufferings from 
 the climate, under which they eke out their existence, is one of 
 the most attractive and interesting ethnological studies with 
 
EIOHTHOtEN's EEMAEKS. 155 
 
 wHch recent travellers have furnished us. It, however, only 
 confirms and explains all that we were able to glean from the 
 meagre reports of earlier times. The lesson to be learned in 
 this particular instance is the durability of savage hfe under the 
 most unfavourable conditions that nature can give. 
 
 8. Observations on Climate. — The general laws of the cli- 
 matic conditions of Central Asia are by the deductive method 
 so correctly known, that Prejevalsky's observations only con- 
 firm our expectations. [Vide swpra, p. 124.J 
 
 9. The Land of Oherchen. — Turning from the observations 
 for which we are indebted to Prejevalsky's journey, to 
 his researches, the chief interest centres in the Cherchen 
 country. Shortly before the Tarim reaches Lake Kara- 
 buran, it receives a right tributary flowing from the south- 
 west, which bears the name of Cherchen-daria, on which 
 is situated a place of the same name. The distance is 
 eleven days' march with pack-asses, estimated by Pre- 
 jevalsky at 300 versts, which is perhaps a little too high.° 
 From Cherchen it is ten days' march to Nai, and three thence 
 to Kiria. Shaw ascertained it to be sixteen instead of thirteen 
 days' march," and his informant was a man who had lived twelve 
 years in Cherchen. He also reported that Cherchen (written 
 Charchand by him), lay on a river which flowed to Lob; he 
 adds that the banks of this river are inhabited, and the road 
 follows the course of the river. The productions of Cherchen, 
 which, according to the foregoing report, are maize and wheat, 
 apple and pear trees, prove the excellence of its climate, even 
 though, as Shaw remarks, its elevation exceed that of Kiria, 
 because rice and cotton do not grow there. 
 
 Ciarcian was first known through Marco Polo, who reached 
 it on his road from Khoten to Lob, five days before reach- 
 ing the latter. The name was again brought to light by 
 Johnson's discovery, in 1866, of a route through Cherchen 
 
 5 The day's march of a pack-ass is reckoned in China at forty li. This 
 would make 440 li, or about 220 versts. As Shaw reckons the distance 
 from Cherchen to Lob at six days' march, by taking the above measure- 
 ment of seventy li as the length of a day's journey, we arrive in this way 
 at nearly a similar result. 
 
 8 Proceedings of the Eoyal Geographical Society, vol. xvi. p. 247. 
 
156 eichthopbn's eemaeks. 
 
 to Lob. But we are indebted to Yule for identifying tbe 
 place and name with Marco Polo's description.' Johnson 
 learned that it contained 500 houses, but he obtained, as it 
 appears, no reliable information regarding its distance from Kiria, 
 which he reckoned to be only nine marches. Two marches from 
 the last-named place he gives Nia, a village of fifty houses, which 
 is clearly the Nai of Prejevalsky, although the latter traveller 
 heard of 900 houses.' 
 
 10. The Southern and South-western Moimtainous Country. — 
 Nothing is more difficult than to obtain reliable information from 
 natives concerning mountain ranges and their direction, especially 
 when the narrators have only travelled along roads from which 
 the mountains are visible in the distance. Prejevalsky had 
 moreover the disadvantages of meeting with certain distrust, 
 and of not possessing a sufficiently capable interpreter. He 
 gathered that the south-westerly continuation of the Altyn- 
 tagh extended without a break, and, as he therefore appears to 
 assume, as an uninterrupted escarpment of mountainous land, 
 facing towards the lower desert, as far as the oases of Kiria 
 and Khoten. If the only probable explanation of this state- 
 ment lies in the circumstance that mountains can be seen 
 from the road at a greater or less distance, the existence of so 
 
 ' Yule's Mwrco Polo, second edition, i. p. 201. 
 
 ' It is curious how rarely itineraries agree witli one another aa to 
 distances. If it were not for the identification of the names in the 
 authorities here cited (Marco Polo, Johnson, Shaw, and Prejevalsky), a 
 comparison would be scarcely possible. It need not, therefore, surprise 
 us that the accounts of Hwen-thsang, who, coming direct from India, 
 preferred the Sanscrit names introduced with Buddhism to those of the 
 natives, are not in full accordance with others. The terminal points, 
 Tu-tien (Khoten), and Nafopo (Leu-lau), are fixed. Between these he 
 reckons (starting from Yu-tien) 330 li to Peine, which can be identified 
 with Marco Polo's Pein (according to another reading Peym); 200 
 li to Nijang, the distance of which from Khoten answers to that of 
 Kiria J 400 to the buried cities of the kingdom of Tuholo ; 600 li to 
 Nimo or Chemotona, and lastly 1000 li to Nafopo. A comparison of the 
 distance of 530 li from Yu-tien to Nijang with that of 2000 li between 
 the latter place and Nafopo, nearly corresponds with that between Khoten 
 and Kiria on the one side, and from Kiria to Lake Karaburan on the 
 other, so that Nijang and Kiria may without hesitation be considered 
 as nearly identical. Nimo alone remains doubtful ; from its position it 
 cannot pass for Cherchen, and it may have altogether disappeared. 
 
eichthopen's ebmaeks. 157 
 
 unnatural a configuration assumed to be the margin of the 
 Tarim basin, in the shape of a wall-like range running from 
 north-east to south-west, becomes improbable, as it also does on 
 comparing the delineation of the mountains on the Chinese 
 maps and the information collected by Shaw. Prejevalsky sup- 
 plements his statement with some particulars which he heard 
 regarding the mountainous region to the south of the lakes. 
 [Vide supra, p. 83], and apparently assigns the name " Tuguz- 
 daban " to the supposed great marginal range, and in this sense 
 it is inserted on Petermann's map accompanying Prejevalsky's 
 narrative. We have only to observe here that this name 
 (properly Tohus-dawan) signifies " the nine passes," and is not 
 mentioned now for the first time. Shaw had already heard of 
 it. He writes it Tohos-dewan, is aware of its meaning, and 
 states that this region of the nine passes is reported to be 
 situated a fortnight's journey east of Cherchen, and that a road 
 led through it to Lan-chau-fu, by which Kahnuks came to trade 
 at Cherchen. Since the places from which the information 
 relating to Tokus-dawan originates are far apart, and since in 
 both cases this one name is given to a pass, we must infer that 
 it is known far and wide ; on the other hand, the difference in 
 the position assigned to it — first, by Prejevalsky, nearly south- 
 west from the Tarim lakes in the direction of Cherchen; secondly, 
 by Shaw, fourteen days' journey east of the last-named place — 
 would seem as if it referred to an extended trade-route, " the road 
 of nine passes," and not merely to a particular locality. This 
 is probably a road leading in one direction to Tsaidam, Koko- 
 iior and Si-ning-fu, in the other to Khoten. 
 
 If the evidence adduced in support of the supposed marginal 
 range must, after what we have said, be rejected, and a different 
 explanation given of it, besides the extreme improbability of such 
 a feature in the orography as a wall of mountains running from 
 south-west to north-east, other positive grounds may be urged 
 against it. First, we know from the concurrent statements of 
 Johnson and Shaw, that the road from Kiria departs from its 
 earlier direction (nearly east by south), makes a sweep round, and 
 then proceeds nearly due north ; the most probable cause for this 
 deflection is that a more northerly chain of mountains rising in 
 
158 eiohthopen's eemarks. 
 
 the west, has to be circumvented. Again, Shaw learned that to 
 the right of the road from Kiria to Cherchen, black, i. e. snow- 
 less mountains might be seen at a distance in clear weather ; 
 further, that although these mountains were not far from 
 Cherchen and Lob, it took six days' travelling in an east 
 and south direction to get from the former of these places into 
 a range resorted to by hunters, gold-seekers, and shepherds. 
 This may perhaps be explained by the circumstance that 
 arid outlying hiUs project to the neighbourhood of Cherchen, 
 but that a range suitable for the habitation of men and cattle, 
 would be first met with a greater distance off. We can there- 
 fore agree with Shaw that Cherchen lies in a great bay of plain 
 running into the hills. 
 
 Summarizing all the results of Prejevalsky's expedition, we 
 find our knowledge of Central Asia by his help wonderfully 
 extended, and our interest in it greatly excited. The problem 
 of the situation of Lob-nor has been very nearly solved, that of 
 the lake basins, into which the greater part, at any rate, of the 
 waters of the Tarim at present discharge, is almost explained ; 
 the site of the ancient kingdoms of Leu-Ian and Shen-shen has 
 been again found, sufficiently explored and described ; contrary 
 to views hitherto prevailing, south of the present Tarim lakes, 
 a lofty range, rising to an altitude of 14,000 feet, and perhaps 
 higher towards the south-west, with a steep escarpment on the 
 north, has been discovered, and its function as the northern 
 margin of the Tibetan plateau at this point very probably deter- 
 mined. Moreover our geographical ideas of this region have 
 been materially transposed, and we receive a natural key to 
 explain historical occurrences, whose relation to the configura- 
 tion of the soU was hitherto obscure. The inhabitants, too, 
 isolated from the rest of the world, have been brought nearer 
 to us than they could ever have been through Chinese sources of 
 information. At the same time we receive from the talented 
 explorer comprehensive and suggestive conclusions on the animal 
 and plant life in its relation to the general character of the 
 region. But the chief merit of Prejevalsky's observations is 
 their comprehensive and many-sided grasp of the subject. 
 
 Every new solution, however, brings with it new problems. 
 
eichthofen's eemaeks. 159 
 
 The results achieved have brought forward a number of ques- 
 tions which a few years ago could not be fommlated. The 
 problem of Lake Lob itself requires more thorough investiga- 
 tion. The discovery of a sweet- water lake near the place where 
 all history speaks of a great salt lake, and where every theo- 
 retical inference certainly points to such a conclusion, cannot 
 satisfy us. We are not yet disposed to admit that a pre- 
 cipitous cliff faces the Tarim basin, in this particular spot, with- 
 out feeling most desirous to know its further continuation, 
 particularly in the direction of the Khoten road which once led 
 through a number of oases, but subsequently fell into disuse, 
 and whose former existence in part revealed by ancient names, 
 has quite recently been re-established ; and it would be pre- 
 mature as yet to deduce from these explorations the dis- 
 covery of a continuous range extending towards Tsaidam and 
 Tibet. To the former of these problems, so far as the southern 
 margin of the Tarim basin is concerned. Count Bela Szeczeuyi 
 has dedicated the great journey towards the accomplishment 
 of which, with a noble love of geographical exploration, he has 
 resolved to devote his powers and means for a series of years. 
 The departure of his expedition from Shanghai is imminent. 
 Prejevalsky too, with untiring energy, is about to undertake 
 another journey to elucidate new facts connected with these 
 regions, and if possible to carry out his long-cherished plan of 
 penetrating into Tibet. His travels hitherto may well compare 
 with many of the most remarkable expeditions of modern times 
 on African soil in the fruitfulness of their results, and we may 
 expect from the efforts of both travellers the most important 
 explanations on those parts of Asia which, after the great works 
 of the last two centuries, is most closed to our knowledge. 
 
COLONEL PEEJEVALSKY'S REPLIES TO 
 BARON RICHTHOFEN'S CRITICISMS. 
 
 Baeon Eichthopen, so well known for his travels in China, 
 in a paper read before the Berlin Geographical Society ' last 
 spring, made some highly interesting remarks on and additions 
 to my short report of a journey to Lob-nor. 
 
 TJpon the authority of various Chinese sources of informa- 
 tion, Baron Richthofen gave some important particulars of 
 the earlier history of this region, its inhabitants, and the ancient 
 remains discovered by me. But at the same time the learned 
 professor expressed doubts as to whether the lakes which I 
 discovered at the mouth of the Tarim form the true Lob-nor, 
 and whether their position should not be farther north, i. e. due 
 east of the bend of the Tarim, near its confluence with the 
 Ugen-daria. 
 
 In the interests of truth, I take the liberty of replying to 
 these criticisms. 
 
 The chief arguments adduced by Baron Eichthofen, in sup- 
 port of his opinion are the following :-^— 1. That whereas the 
 lakes (Kara-buran and Chon-kul) discovered by me at the 
 mouth of the Tarim contain sweet water, all the accounts 
 dating from the very earliest times represent Lob-nor 
 as a salt lake, and that this is in full accord with scientific 
 deduction. 2. On all Chinese maps the position of Lob-nor is 
 considerably to the north of that which I assigned to it ; and the 
 
 ' Bemerkungen zu den Ergebnissen von Oberst-Lieutenant Preje- 
 valski's Eeise naob dem Lop-noor und Altyn-tagb. 
 
prejbvalskt's eeplies to eichthofen. 161 
 
 Lower Tarim flows due east instead of in a south-easterly direc- 
 tion ; and, 3. These same Chinese maps show the country to the 
 south of Lob-nor to be flat, whilst near my lakes they place 
 a small isolated lake — Khas-omo, to the south of which lofty 
 mountains shoot up from the plain in the identical spot where 
 I met with the Altyn-tagh. In order to reconcile the dis- 
 crepancies between the Chinese statements and the results of my 
 investigations, Baron Richthofen supposes that the Lower Tarim 
 in comparatively recent times altered its course ; a small channel, 
 probably, as the Baron thinks, unexplored by me, continues to 
 follow the former direction to the east towards the true Lob- 
 nor, whilst the chief mass of water diverted to the south-east 
 entered Lake Khas-omo, and here formed with its overflow the 
 lakes which I discovered. 
 
 It is impossible to deny that such a phenomenon may have 
 occurred. A river with such a rapid stream as the Tarim 
 flowing in a loose alluvial soil might easily have changed its 
 course. My opinion, however, is that no such important 
 change has occurred within comparatively recent times, but that 
 the contradictory statements of Chinese maps and descriptions 
 of the Lower Tarim and Lob-nor may be readily accounted for 
 hy the misleading and inaccurate information which the Chinese 
 themselves possessed of these localities. 
 
 Let us proceed in due order. 
 
 Before we had made many marches to the south of Korla 
 we began to perceive the inaccuracy of existing maps. Thus 
 the Koncheh-daria, instead of making a large and sudden elbow 
 to the west, only slightly inclines in this direction, and then 
 turning to the east and south-east, flows for some distance 
 in an independent channel before joining the Kiok-alardaria, 
 an arm of the Tarim. The width of the Koncheh-daria where 
 we crossed it a second time (48 versts S.S.W. of Korla) is 
 50 to 70 ft., depth 10 to 14 ft., and stream moderately rapid 
 Less than ten versts from the Koncheh, we came to another 
 river — the Inchikeh-daria (50 to 70 ft. wide and of some depth) 
 and twenty versts beyond this again, to the Tarim itself at its 
 confluence with the Ugen-daria, a river which takes its rise in 
 the Muzart. 
 
 M 
 
162 peejbvalsky's eeplibs to richthopen. 
 
 Nothing of the kind is to be found on any map hitherto 
 existing compiled (in the absence of European sources of informa- 
 tion) from Chinese records. If such inaccuracy as this can bo 
 detected at a distance of less than 100 versts from so old a 
 town as Korla and the still more ancient caravan road lead- 
 ing from it along the southern foot of the Tian-Shan — -what 
 reliance can be placed in the same Chinese sources regarding 
 more remote and less accessible districts such as the Lower 
 Tarim and Lob-nor ? 
 
 That the rivers Koncheh _ and Inchikeh-daria flow from 
 distinct and widely separated localities can be proved not only 
 by the frequent inquiries we made of the inhabitants — but by 
 the difference in the temperature of their water. In clear 
 weather on the 6/18th November at midday the temperature of 
 the Koncheh water was 33° Fahr., the river was full of small ice, 
 and a few days later, as we learned from the natives, was frozen 
 over ; on the other hand, the Inchikeh water only two days 
 later, i. e. on the 8/20th November, was 37° Fahr., and was 
 not obstructed by ice even at night. The cause of this is evi- 
 dent — the Koncheh-daria flows from the high cold lake of 
 Bagarash, not far from where we crossed, whilst the Inchikeh- 
 daria comes from a distance through a low and warm desert 
 where its water gets heated. Moreover, it is positively cer- 
 tain that the Inchikeh is not an arm of the Tarim, as might 
 have been, supposed. Thus in the month of November, when 
 we crossed the former its water was on a level with 
 the banks, its width was about 50 ft., and depth 10 ft. At 
 this time the Tarim was also high. When we returned in 
 the following spring, and crossed the Inchikeh on the 18/30th 
 April, it was 3 to 4 ft. lower than in the preceding autumn 
 whilst the level of the Tarim was the same as in November. 
 This of course could not have occurred if there had been any 
 communication between the two rivers. 
 
 We could not ascertain how the Inchikeh united with the 
 Koncheh. Some of the natives told us that before joining the 
 Koncheh, it passed through a lake ; others said that it dis- 
 appeared in saline marshes and at flood time flowed straight 
 into the Koncheh. In any case its mouth is not far from the 
 
pebjbvalsey's eeplies to riohthopen. 163 
 
 place of our crossing, for our travelling-companion, Zaman Beg, 
 rode to Korla by another road running due north for some 
 distance from the village of Akhtarma and assured us that by 
 this route he had only to cross one river — the Koncheh-daria. 
 
 The Tarim, at its confluence with the Ugen-daria, flows in 
 one channel of 350 — 400 ft. wide, and 20 ft. deep, as we learned 
 from the natives, for we were rarely able to take soundings, 
 and never in the presence of our guides. 
 
 It is unnecessary to repeat the statements contained in my 
 report regarding the hydrography of the Lower Tarim, and 
 I win only add that the chief cause of the diminution of the 
 volume of its stream as it flows farther to the south-east, is 
 the diversion of its water into artificial lakes and marshes 
 occupying vast tracts along its lower course, and these, owing 
 to strong evaporation continuing the greater part of the year, 
 absorb an immense quantity of moisture subtracted from the 
 principal river. 
 
 Regarding the possibility of there being another channel by 
 which, as Baron Eichthofen supposes, the Tarim carries part 
 of its water to the east, and there forms the true Lob-nor — 
 such a supposition is not supported by the facts hitherto 
 obtained. To say nothing of .the circumstance that the in- 
 habitants would surely have known of such a channel and so 
 large a lake, and would sooHer , or later have told me about 
 them, we ourselves followed the, bank of the Tarim, and could 
 not detect any, not even the smallest rivulet crossing our road. 
 Had there been one, it would not have escaped our notice, for 
 in crossing such places i the camels were always troublesome — 
 nor can the rivers Koncheh and Kiok-ala-daria," along whose 
 left (eastern) bank we did not travel, detach a considerable 
 channel to one side, for if this were the case, the Kiok-ala-daria 
 would not be much larger in its lower course than at the point 
 of its separation from the Tarim. 
 
 2 The Kiok-ala-daria, near the village of the same name, is about 
 150 ft. wide, and a little lower in its narrowest part, where we crossed 
 it, only 80 ft., whereas 16 vc- rsts to the east of the village of ghui-su, 
 and therefore after its confluence with the Koncheh, it is nearly twice 
 its former size (210—230 ft). 
 
 M 2 
 
164 prejevalskt's eeplies to eichthoeen. 
 
 Now with reference to the lakes at the mouth of the chief 
 river, of which there are two : Kara-huran and Kara-kurohin 
 or Chon-kul ; ' both are shallow and contain fresh water. As 
 regards the former the presence of sweet water can be explained 
 by the fact that the Tarim only flows through it, and its water 
 is therefore constantly renewed. 
 
 As to the other enclosed lake basin, it appears at first 
 sight inexplicable why its water should be sweet.* But the 
 facts collected by me on the spot explain the apparent 
 anomaly.'' The fact is, the Chon-kul is nothing more than a 
 wide expanse of land flooded by the Tarim ; in all its Vestern 
 parts I observed a current, sometimes very considerable, towards 
 the north-east. In this part the Tarim preserves an independent 
 channel, although reduced to the size of a large ditch. Here 
 the last two villages ° of Lob-nortsi are situated, and farther 
 to the north-east lie boundless and impassable tracts of marsh 
 land which actually absorb the remainder of the Tarim water. 
 In these marshes, and in the great salt bogs extending, as the 
 natives told us, far away in a N.E. direction, the standing 
 water is doubtless salt, just as it is along the shallow western 
 margin of the Chon-kul. 
 
 In ancient times, when this lake was much larger, it may 
 possibly have united with Kara-buran, and submerged all the 
 salt bogs along its southern shore. At that time, probably, 
 the belt of stagnant, and therefore salt Avater must have been 
 wider than at present,' and this may have induced the Chinese 
 ■writers to call it " the salt lake." 
 
 Eegarding the circumstance of the natives not knowing or 
 
 ' Erroneously printed Chok-kul in my report and accompanying map 
 wMoh I was unable personally to revise. 
 
 * I regret extremely that in my short report hastily written at Kulja, 
 I should have omitted to state the causes of the sweetness of the Lob- 
 nor water. 
 
 ' The water of the Tarim is in no part in the slightest degree salt, 
 and the same remark applies to the rivers Koncheh, Inohikeh, Ugen and 
 Cherohen darias. 
 
 * Both are called Kara-Kurohin. 
 
 ' At present the water of Chon-Kul is salt for a distance of 300 paces 
 from the shores, more or less. 
 
peejevalsky's replies to richthofbn. 165 
 
 rather not employing the term " Lob-nor " for these lakes, a 
 parallel may be shown in the case of the Tarim. The inhabitants 
 hardly ever call it by this name, but generally speak of it as 
 the Yarkand-daria or Chon-daria,' the name Lob-nor is applied 
 by these very people to the whole inhabited district of Kara- 
 kul and Kara-kurchin. When we arrived at the first Tarim 
 village of Kutmet-kul, the chief of the place, in answer to my 
 question, " How far is it to Lob-nor?" answered, pointing to 
 himself, " I am Lob-nor." 
 
 In conclnsion, I consider it my duty to repeat that the in- 
 habitants one and all denied the existence of any other lakes in 
 the neighbouring desert besides those on which they lived. 
 They likewise did not know of the oasis of " Gast," about 
 which I had so often heard in Tsaidam. 
 
 N. Peejevalskt. 
 
 IS/SOa August, 1878. 
 Tillage of Otraduoi, Government of Smolensk. 
 
 5 This means, " Great river." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 FAUNA OF THE TAEIM VALLEY AND LOB-NOR. 
 
 Mammalia. 
 
 TiGEE, common, in some places numerous. 
 
 Manul (felis maiiuV), common. 
 
 Lynx, reported to be occasionally seen. 
 
 Wolf, I 
 
 -J, ^ unirequent, even rare. 
 
 Common otter, said to be tolerably numerous by the banks of 
 the fish-lakes. 
 
 Hedgehog, rare. 
 
 Shrew, rare. 
 
 Deer (Cervus maraV) , common. 
 
 Steppe antelope {A. subgutturosa') , common. 
 
 Hare, tolerably numerous. 
 
 Meriones, two species, one rare, the other numerous in 
 places. 
 
 Wild boar, common, in some places numerous. 
 
 Mice, few. 
 
 Wild camel {Oamelus hactrianus,ferus), inhabits the region 
 to the east of Lob-nor, and occasionally the sand-wastes on the 
 Lower Tarim. 
 
 Avi-Fauna. 
 
 The following is a list of birds observed in the Tarim valley 
 during winter : — 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 Grey vulture, a visitant from the Tian Shan. 
 
 Eagles, two kinds {fulva and lifasciata), very rare. 
 
 Buzzard, only once seen. 
 
 Goshawk, rare. 
 
 Sparrowhawk, common. 
 
 Merlin, rare. 
 
 Kestrel, common, habitant. 
 
 Marsh harrier, ) , , . 
 
 Common harrier, f ^^'''*™*' ' P™^'^"^ ^^'° wintering. 
 
 Long-eared owl, 1 
 
 Short-eared owl, J 
 
 Athene plumipes, only found at Chargalyk. 
 
 Eaven (0. corax), habitant, rare. 
 
 Hooded or Eoyston crow (C comix), only a few specimens 
 observed at Chargalyk ; this being the extreme eastern Hmit of 
 its range. 
 
 Eastern crow (G, orientalis), habitant, numerous. 
 
 Magpie {Pica caudata var.), habitant, rare. 
 
 Biddulph's Podoces (Podoces Biddulphii), habitant, common. 
 
 f Passer montanus, ) 
 Sparrows, \ -r. j j ■ c habitants. 
 
 *^ (.P. ammodenan, J 
 
 Bullfinch {Garpodacus rvibicilla), winters in small numbers. 
 
 Eosefinch {JErythrospiza olsoleta), habitant, rare. 
 
 ( G/ncJiramus schoeniclus, "),,.. 
 ,, i ^ 7 1 . 7 > habitants, common. 
 
 (^V. pyrrnuloides, ) 
 
 Black-throated thrush (21 atrigularis), winters, numerous. 
 
 MyopTioneus TemmincTeii, winters, very rare. 
 
 Eedstart (^Butioilla erythronota), winters, very rare. 
 
 ShopopMlus deserti, n. sp., common, habitant. 
 
 Azure Titmouse, Cyanistes cyanus, habitant, rare. 
 
 Bearded Titmouse, PamwrMs barhatus,Yerj numerous, habitant. 
 
 Leptopcecile SopAics, rare. 
 
 Meadow-pipit {Anthws pratensis ?), rarely winters, nidifies. 
 
 Skylark (Alawda arvensis), very rare, habitant. 
 
 Pale short-toed Larks {Alaudula leucopJicsa), habitant, 
 
 numerous. 
 
 Crested Lark I^Qalerita magna), habitant, numerous. 
 
 Homeyer's shrike {Lanius Homey eri ?), winters, rare. 
 
168 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Hoopoe {TJpupa epops), winters, only met with at Chargalyk. 
 
 Woodpeckers {Picus sp.'), habitant, very common. 
 
 Sand-grouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus), rare, habitant. 
 
 Turtle-dove {Turtur vitticollis\ T. sp.), only met with at 
 Chargalyk. 
 
 Sarelda glacialis. 
 
 Anas clypeata, 
 
 Cormorant {Cario cormoranus). 
 
 Brown-headed Gull {Larus Inm- 
 neiceplialus), 
 
 Common bittern {Botaurus stel-^ said towinterinsmallnum- 
 Zam), i- hers among the reedy un 
 
 Swan (O^gmis olor ?) ) frozen parts of Lob-nor 
 
 rare, only single specimens 
 seen in November. 
 
 ' [Called in Kashmir Kookail. — M.] 
 
 [N.B. — Many of the birds here mentioned will be found described and 
 some figured in " Lahore to Tarkand," by Henderson and Hume, and in 
 Blanford'a " Ornithological Kotes to Eastern Persia." — M.] 
 
EARLIEST NOTICES OF THE LAKE. 169 
 
 LAKE BALKASH. 
 
 Earliest notices — Origin of name — First surveys — Russian ex- 
 plorers — Assanoff ; Schrenk — Incorrect cartography — For- 
 doroff's observations — Height of lake and relative position 
 — Rivers flowing into it ; the Hi and its headwaters the 
 Tekes — Muzart pass — Kulja and its neighbourhood — The 
 Lepsa — Chubar-agatch valley — The Kara-tal — Buddhistic 
 remains — ^Nifantieff deputed to survey Lake Balkash — 
 Preparations ; he launches his boats— Difficulties — He 
 constructs a felt dam ; arrives at the lake ; begins survey 
 — His assistant shipwrecked — He completes survey follow- 
 ing year. 
 
 It was not till the final occupation of the district 
 
 of Semirechinsk (or seven rivers ') in 1849, that 
 
 the Russians seriously thought about surveying 
 
 and exploring Lake Balkash. Up to that time all 
 
 that had been done was to survey parts of the 
 
 shores and collect the scattered notices of the 
 
 few who had visited it. The earliest information 
 
 given of the lake is contained in the Chinese 
 
 records, the relations of this people with Central 
 
 Asia from very remote times having acquainted 
 
 them first with its geography. 
 
 Si-yui or the western country in the widest 
 
 ' The seven rivers are the Ayaguz, Lepsa, Ak-su, Bien, Kara 
 tal, Kok-su, and Hi. 
 
170 LAKE BALKASH. 
 
 sense comprised tlie wtole extent of the continent 
 of Asia to the west of the Great Wall, and was 
 known to the Chinese in the second century, B.C. — 
 In the year of our Lord, 607, Pei-kiu, inspector of 
 foreigners, compiled special maps of forty-four 
 states at that time existing in Central Asia ; but 
 none of these maps and descriptions are extant, 
 and from the confusion in the terminology, owing 
 partly to the changes in the names of towns and 
 countries at different epochs and partly no doubt 
 to the inaccessibility of Chinese sources of in- 
 formation, and the comparatively little attention 
 hitherto bestowed on them, opinions widely diver- 
 gent prevailed, even down to recent times. 
 
 Humboldt says in his " Asie Centrale," (vol. 
 ii. p. 64), that the Chinese called Lake Balkash 
 Si-hai or Western Sea, which led to its being 
 confounded with the Caspian, and a Bavarian 
 geographer, Spruner, in 1865, actually gave it that 
 name on his map. The name Balkash-nor, by 
 which it is at present known, originated with the 
 the Dzungars, a people who are rapidly becoming 
 extinct under the influence of the terrible wars 
 which have desolated the border states of China 
 and Russia. This is the name also given to it 
 by Klaproth on his great map of Central Asia 
 compiled in 1833, from the surveys of the 
 Jesuit missionaries (supra, p. 137). Amongst 
 the Kirghiz it was generally known as " Den- 
 ghiz" or "Tenghiz," a word meaning "sea." 
 In the great survey of Russia, published in the 
 
WEST SURVEYS. 
 
 171 
 
 sixteentli century, Balkash is not mentioned, 
 although some of the great inland water basins, 
 as for instance the Aral, are tolerably accurately 
 described. But on the general map of Siberia, 
 supposed to have been compiled about the year 
 1695, Lake Balkash appears as the "Tenghiz Sea," 
 with the rivers Syr and Amun-daria flowing from 
 its west shore into the Aral. If we consider the 
 difficulties of obtaining correct information in 
 those days, it is wonderful how accurate this map 
 of Siberia appears to be. 
 
 The occupation of the line of the Irtysh, 
 strengthened by a chain of forts and outposts 
 extending from Omsk to Ust Kamennogorsk 
 (1716-19), opened a wide field to geographical 
 enterprise. Disputes frequently arose as to the 
 ownership of the annexed lands of the Dzun- 
 garians, to settle which the Russian Government 
 caused careful topographical surveys and maps 
 to be made. In this way the country became 
 better known. Special missions, too, were from 
 time to time sent to the independent princes. 
 Thus we read of the boyard Maremianoff being 
 charged to carry an autograph letter from the 
 Tsar Peter the Great to Tsevan Araptan, lord 
 of Dzungaria, on which occasion Prince Gagarin, 
 Governor of Siberia, furnished another member of 
 the mission with special instructions to observe 
 everything that he saw on the road to the urga 
 or camp of the prince, and keep a journal. 
 
 In 1748 Lieutenant Podzoroff, was sent from 
 
172 LAKE EALEASH. 
 
 fort Yamish. with two oflicial letters to tlie khan ; 
 his diary is full of information regarding the 
 country visited and the actual state of affairs in 
 Dzungariaj the following year, another officer, 
 Lieutenant Tiersky, was despatched on a similar 
 mission by the commandant of fort Yamish.^ 
 Trained surveyors, too, accompanied the caravans 
 of merchandise, and they were instructed to make 
 route surveys of the country traversed and collect 
 information upon the neighbouring districts. 
 From these and other materials good maps were 
 compiled in the eighteenth century of the river 
 basin of the Irtysh and the country occupied by 
 the Kalmuks of Dzungaria. 
 
 But notwithstanding the activity displayed in 
 this direction, no Russian traveller appears to have 
 visited Lake Balkash, and the information con- 
 cerning it in the early part of the present century 
 was probably derived from hearsay and conjecture.^ 
 Between the years 1837-43, however, the whole 
 extent of the trans-Irtysh steppe as far as the 
 rivers Ayaguz and Ohu was mapped on a scale of 
 five versts to the inch, and at the same time the 
 north-western and southern shores of Lake Bal- 
 kash were explored and surveyed from Cape 
 Ohaukkar to the estuary of the Hi. 
 
 " The narratives of Lieuts. Podzoroff and Tiersky are pub- 
 lished in the Vestnik of the Imperial Geographical Society for 
 1851, pai-t iii. No. 6, p. 60. 
 
 ' As we learn from an article by General Babkoff in the 
 Zofisky, from which we borrow these particulars. 
 
EXPEDITION OS ASSANOFF ; SCHEENK. 173 
 
 In' 1839 Prince Gortchakoff, at tliat time 
 governor of Western Siberia, sent an officer of 
 Cossacks by tlie name of Assanoff with a small 
 force of men to Lake Balkash, to inquire into the 
 possibility of establishing a fishing- station. In 
 September, 1839, Assanoff left Ayaguz, and, de- 
 scending the river of that name, reached the lake 
 whose northern and eastern shores he explored 
 from the estuary of the Ayaguz to that of the 
 Lepsa — taking soundings and trying the fishing. 
 He only found two kinds of fish, the marena* 
 and sudak,^ and these not in any large numbers, 
 the brackish water rendering it uninhabitable for 
 the cartilaginous fishes. Owing to this and other 
 considerations the fishery scheme was aban- 
 doned. 
 
 Between 1840-43 Schrenk, whose valuable 
 observations have contributed so much to science, 
 but of whose travels, alas, no detailed narrative 
 has been published,^ explored the south-eastern, 
 north-western, and southern shores of Lake 
 Balkash. The want of a complete and systematic 
 survey, however, continued to be felt, and became 
 manifest in the inaccuracy of existing maps. 
 
 * The genus marena, according to Webster, takes its name 
 from Lake Morin, in the marsh of Brandenburg, in Prussia. 
 
 * The common pike-perch, Lusioperca sandra, well known 
 on the Neva, where it is highly esteemed for its delicate white 
 flesh. 
 
 ° Except the extracts published in Beitrdge zur Kenntniss 
 des Russischen SeicTis. Baer und Helmersen. 
 
174 LAKE EALEASH. 
 
 Thus on Pansner's map, published in 181 6, Lake 
 Balkash is represented as an ellipse, with the 
 longer axis lying in a meridional direction, and, as 
 Pansner was the standard authority of those days, 
 other cartographers copied his mistakes. On 
 Arrowsmith's map, published inl822,the longitude 
 of the lake is incorrectly given as 71° (on Pansner's 
 map 76°), and serious blunders occur in the 
 names, for instance the Hi is called " Uliya," an 
 ancient stone building is represented as a town, 
 and so on. Klaproth's large map of Central Asia 
 reduces Lake Balkash by one third of its actual 
 size, and erroneously shows a considerable extent 
 of marshy country to the north. But the general 
 fault of all cartographers lay in the delineation of 
 its length, which, according to the latest surveys, 
 has been ascertained to be about 330 miles, with 
 an area ascertained by YeniukoflF to be 19,600 sq. 
 versts=:8612 English sq. miles.' 
 
 No astronomical observations to fix its position 
 cartographically had been taken down to 1834. 
 About that time, however, observations were com- 
 menced in the more inhabited parts of Siberia, 
 and it was to connect these that the ' Government 
 
 ' The width varies from 5 miles in its northern part to 50 
 towards the south ; the circumference is about 880 miles. The 
 depth nowhere exceeds 56 ft., and shallows and sand-banks of a 
 mile or more in extent are of frequent occurrence. On the 
 north, north-east, and north-west the shores are hilly, whilst on 
 the south a wide, uneven plain extends to the foot of the Ala-tau 
 mountains. 
 
PEODOEOFP'S OBSEEVATIONS. 175 
 
 decided on obtaining a sufficient number of astro- 
 nomically-fixed positions. Accordingly we find 
 Feodoroff deputed for this task in 1832. By 
 1837 lie had fixed no less than seventy-nine posi- 
 tions, and amongst them one on Lake Balkash at 
 the mouth of the Lepsa. On the 29th September, 
 1834, he arrived at the town of Ayaguz, which 
 three years previously had become the centre of 
 an administrative district ; deep snow covering the 
 Tarbagatai mountains, and dearth of fodder for 
 his horses, owing to the lateness of the"* season, 
 prevented him from exploring the sources of the 
 Ayaguz river, and its estuary becoming lost in 
 reedy swamps, about ten miles from the lake, was 
 quite inaccessible for scientific purposes. Feodo- 
 roff, therefore, after fixing the position of the town 
 of Ayaguz (now the Central Ayaguz outpost), re- 
 solved on descending the Lepsa. Having com- 
 pleted his arrangements, he set out for Lake Bal- 
 kash on the 7th October, 1834. Ten miles from 
 Ayaguz he crossed to the left bank of the river of 
 the same name, and continued to descend its valley, 
 passing the tomb of Kuzu-Kerpetch,* famous for 
 its Kirghiz legend, which still lives in the recollec- 
 tion of the inhabitants. Turning the Arganatau 
 mountains on the west, Feodorofi" gained the Lepsa 
 on the 12th October, and on the 17th of that 
 
 " Kuzu-Kerpetch was the name of a Kirghiz chief celebrated 
 in the follc-songs for his valour and for his love for Baian Sulu, 
 "who became the cause of his death. 
 
176 LAKE BALKASH. 
 
 montli reacted its estuary in Lake Balkasli. Here 
 lie took eight lunar zeniths, and two occultations 
 of stars, finding the mouth of the Lepsa to be in 
 46° 20' 3" N. lat., and 48° 0' 5" longitude east 
 of Pulkovo observatory. Important as Feodo- 
 roff's work was for correcting the position of Lake 
 Balkash, no further observations of the sort have 
 since been made, and the subsequent topograpMcal 
 surveys which, as we shall see, were undertaken at 
 the cost of great labour and expense, lose much of 
 their value, owing to the want of fixed cartogra- 
 phical positions. 
 
 The height of the lake above sea-level has never 
 yet been accurately determined. Humboldt 
 thought it could not be. more than 1800 feet. 
 Semeonoff, however, according to calculations 
 based on his experiments made with boiling water 
 on the river Ili, and on Lake Ala-kul, estimates 
 it at between 600 and 700 feet. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the whole country 
 west of the Altai gradually slopes to the Caspian 
 Sea, and forms almost one continuous depression, 
 distinctly defined by Lake Balkash, the hungry 
 steppe, and the row of lakes on the lower Chu and 
 Sari-su. Semeonofi" is of opinion that Lakes Bal- 
 kash and Ala-kul were, at one time, part of the 
 same basin, of which the latter is the desiccated 
 end, and his view is corroborated by the presence of 
 the brackish channel of Aitaktin-Karakum, directed 
 from the west shore of Ala-kul towards Balkash. 
 
THE MUZART PASS. 
 
 177 
 
 From the brief summary we have given of the 
 explorations on Lake Balkash, it will be seen that 
 they were of a partial character and that no gene- 
 ral survey of the lake had yet been made. This 
 want was supplied in 1851-52 under the auspices' 
 of General Hasford, Governor of Western Siberia. 
 But before acquainting our readers with some de- 
 tails of this expedition, let us take a glance at the 
 rivers which empty themselves into the lake. 
 
 Of these the most important is the Hi, which, 
 under the name of Tekes, rises on the northern 
 slope of the Tian Shan, at a height of 11,600 
 feet above sea-level, and flows first in a N.N.B. 
 direction, through wild mountain gorges. On 
 issuing into the plain at the foot of the Tian Shan, 
 it turns to the east, and receives a number of 
 tributaries, whose transverse valleys lead up to the 
 celebrated Muzart or Mussart pass," by which 
 
 » The Muzart Pass was explored in 1867 by Poltoratsky, in 
 1870 by Baron Kaulbars, and in the following year by Captain 
 Shepeleff, who descended the glacier on its southern slope as far 
 as the Kashgarian frontier. It may be remarked here that the 
 word Muzart, or Mussart, means " snowy," and is not properly 
 applicable to any one pass in particular ; but is a term used 
 by the natives to denote any of the snowy passes of the Tian 
 Shan. This pass was formerly the only means of communi- 
 cation between the Chinese province of Hi (Dzungaria) and 
 Kashgar, and it was kept in excellent order. Since the Mo- 
 hammedan insurrection, however, and the capture of Kulja, the 
 road was little used, fell into bad order, and became almost 
 impassable. According to Schuyler, the Hussians occupied 
 it in 1871 {Turhistan, ii. 319). This was the route followed by 
 the old Buddhist pilgrim, Hwen Thsang. 
 
 N 
 
178 LAKE BALKASH. 
 
 the road from Kulja to Aksu, crosses the Tian 
 Shan. From the mouth of its left tributary, the 
 Kara-ussu, the Tekes turns to the N.E., and 
 bursts through the northern spurs of the Tian 
 Shan, and on being joined by the Kunges it pro- 
 ceeds northwards, taking the name of Hi. Further 
 on it receives another important tributary on the 
 right, and immediately afterwards turns westward, 
 nearly at right angles with its former course, and 
 flows past the city of Hi, Kulja, or Guldja, situated 
 on its high right bank, 1930 li from Urumtsi, and 
 10,820 li (about 3700 miles) distant from Peking. 
 Kulja was, under Chinese rule, an important em- 
 porium of trade and the administrative centre for 
 the unruly tribes of the Bleuths, Turgutes, &c. It 
 was visited and described by the Russian traveller 
 Putimtseff, in 1811, before the rebellion broke out 
 which put an end to the power of the Chinese. 
 Since it passed into Russian hands (1871), it has 
 been visited by several Europeans, notably by Mr. 
 Schuyler, who has given a most interesting 
 account of his stay there. Kulja was a place of 
 great importance from a very early period, when 
 it was known as " Ili-balik," i. e. city of Ili,^ The 
 
 ' Hi is "resplendent," so Ili-balik is resplendent city. Eitter 
 also calls it Almalik, but SemeonofF in a note to the Eussian 
 edition of Eitter's Asien, says that Amalik (or " apple city," from 
 the apple orchards around it,) lay forty versts W.N.W. of Kulja, 
 probably near the ruins of the modern Alimtu, on the banks of a 
 stream of the same name. 
 
179 
 
 Emperor Kien-Long, wlio rebuilt it in 1754, gave it 
 the tonorary title of Hoi-Tuan-cheng. Amongst 
 the Kirghiz it was commonly called " Guldja," 
 a word of Mongol or Manchu origin, signifying 
 mountain-goat {Gapra ammon), an animal formerly 
 met with in the neighbourhood. Two hours' 
 ride from the town are the mountains of Khongor, 
 abounding in iron and coal. The river, having 
 changed its direction, now flows close under the 
 walls of the town with a very swift stream, and 
 the only means of crossing it is in boats. Hence 
 it pursues its course through a wide, well-culti- 
 vated, and fertile valley till it enters the plain that 
 extends between the southern spurs of the Semi- 
 rechinsk mountains on the north, and the trans- 
 Ili Alatau on the south, and joins Lake Balkash 
 upwards of 400 miles below Kulja, by three arms 
 forming a large delta. The river is navigable for 
 about fifty miles above Kulja, and was used by 
 the Chinese as a means of supplying their garrison 
 with provisions, but the attempts to navigate it 
 from Lake Balkash have hitherto proved unsuccess- 
 ful.^ Its total length from the sources of the Tekes 
 in the Muzart to Lake Balkash is about 750 miles. 
 The river next in importance flowing into Lake 
 Balkash is the Lepsa, or Lep-si of the Chinese, 
 whose three sources rise amid the eternal snows on 
 the north-west slope of the Semirechinsk Alatau, 
 
 ^ For an account of the attempts made to navigate the Hi, 
 see Schuyler's Turhistan, ii. 152. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 LAKE BALKASH. 
 
 near the Kukeh-tau-daban,^ whence they flow 
 into wild gorges between walls of granitic and 
 crystalline rocks, before uniting in the cleft or 
 valley of Chubar-agatch/ in which stands the 
 Lepsinsky Stanitza, or settlenaent of Lepsa, 
 founded in 1856. The valley, which is 2700 feet 
 above sea-level, is oval and surrounded on all 
 sides by lofty mountains. Its climate and soil 
 are favourable to colonization, although the 
 former has its drawbacks, for the currents of 
 winds from the mountains blow with great 
 violence, and fogs and mists often prevent the 
 eun's rays from penetrating and warming the 
 atmosphere ; pasturage, however, is abundant and 
 excellent, and trees in great variety — fir, ash, 
 white birch, apple, rock cherry, mountain ash, 
 guelder rose, barberry, black and scarlet haw- 
 thorne, &c., grow luxuriantly. Here in 1859 
 there were 448 houses, tenanted by 2394 persons 
 of both sexes, who occupied themselves chiefly 
 with agriculture, and who could boast good crops 
 of miUet, wheat, and flax.^ 
 
 ' I. e. ' pass of the blue peak.' General AbramoflF says that 
 the Lepsa has but two sources, known by the name of Terekti, 
 uniting below the Chubar-agatch Valley. Acoording to the 
 same authority, the length of the Lepsa is 230 miles. I have 
 preferred to follow Semeonoff, who himself visited the country 
 in 1856, and has collected all the most recent information 
 about it. 
 
 *I.e.' variegated wood.' 
 
 ' In 1864 the population had increased to 2589, nearly all of 
 whom were Cossacks. 
 
THE LBPSA, THE EAEATAL, 181 
 
 The Lepsa, after leaving the valley of Chubar- 
 agatch,^ forces its way through the outer chain of 
 the Alatau before entering the plain, where its 
 course is N.N.W., and afterwards N.W. Here 
 its banks are bordered by hillocks of drift-sand ; 
 and lower down by reeds, the haunt of the tiger 
 (Felis tigris), being probably the northernmost 
 limit of the distribution of this animal. 
 
 The Lepsa is about 170 miles long, 350 feet wide 
 in its broadest part, and nine feet deep. Next 
 to the Hi, it contains a greater volume of water 
 than any of the rivers of this district. At Lep- 
 sinsky outpost a raft ferry crosses the river, on 
 the high road from Ayaguz to Kopal.' 
 
 The Karatal (i.e. "black valley"), another of 
 the seven rivers, has a longer course (200 miles), 
 and is remarkable for the picturesque defile 
 through which it rushes, after descending from 
 the mountains in a series of leaps or cascades, the 
 noise of which may be heard several versts off. 
 
 Its lower valley is clothed with luxuriant herb- 
 age, and is fertile in the extreme. Here it is 
 
 " Caravan roads to Kulja and Chuguehak pass through the 
 Chubar-agatch Valley, where, according to Kirghiz traditions 
 the Khans of Dzungaria had their summer residence, and where 
 an earthen mound or " Kurgan " still marks the place whence 
 laws and justice were administered to their assembled subjects. 
 
 ' This river has three sources — the Kara-tal, Chadji, and 
 Kora, which take their rise in the snowy Alatau. It is after- 
 wards joined by the Kok-su (blue water), which descends as a 
 cascade from a gloomy chasm of the Alatau, and is broader and 
 more rapid than the Kara-tal. 
 
182 LAKE 13ALKASH. 
 
 crossed by the high road from Kopal to Vernoye, 
 and lower still it again enters a narrow defile, 
 where the rocks are rudely carved to represent 
 various animals, such as deer, wild goat, &c., 
 similar to the carvings on the banks of the 
 Yenissey. On emerging from this defile, the 
 Karatal, from a boisterous torrent, becomes a 
 tranquil steppe river, entering Lake Balkash by 
 three mouths, after a course from beginning to 
 end of 200 English miles, one-third of which is 
 among mountains and two-thirds through plains. 
 This river forms the boundary between the Great 
 and Middle Kirghiz hordes ; on its banks are 
 numerous burial-grounds and graves, and amongst 
 these Buddhistic ruins of the seventeenth century. 
 We have already spoken of the Ayaguz, and as 
 the three smaller rivers, the Aksu, the Bien, and 
 the Koksu may be omitted in this brief sketch, 
 we will return to the lake itself and give some 
 account of the expedition sent to survey it in 
 1851. 
 
 The party was commanded by Lieut. Nifantiefi", 
 and comprised two topographers, and a force of 
 seventy-six Cossacks. Early in spring prepara- 
 tions were commenced by building two boats at 
 Lepsa outpost, and launching them the first 
 favourable opportunity on the lake of that name. 
 The timber required for the purpose had to be 
 carried on camels' backs a distance of sixty miles, 
 the iron came from Omsk and Semipalatinsk, and 
 
nifantieff's expedition. 183 
 
 the anchors from the Irbit fair. All these pre- 
 parations took up so much time, that it was the 
 beginning of August before a start could be 
 made. In the meantime, the water in the river 
 had fallen so low, that Mfantieff, fearing to over- 
 load the boats, decided on sending two months' 
 supplies and all the baggage by land on camels, 
 guarded by a convoy of Cossacks. The passage 
 of the boats down the river was a troublesome 
 matter, owing to the shallowness of the water. 
 Sand-banks were of constant occurrence, and the 
 boats had to be dragged over these by manual 
 labour, so that the expedition did not reach the 
 mouth of the Lepsa before the middle of August ; 
 and here another difficulty had to be encountered. 
 Instead of flowing into the lake, as it was 
 supposed, the river disappeared in tall, thick 
 reeds and rushes two versts from it. Nifantieff 
 therefore determined on digging a trench two 
 versts long and ten feet wide, along the old 
 desiccated river-bed. After the work had pro- 
 gressed five days, it was found possible to flood 
 the trench from the river, but the depth of water 
 was insufficient to float the boats. Undaunted 
 by this new obstacle, Mfantieff constructed a 
 movable dam, of the felt coverings of two yurtas 
 or tents belonging to the party, and in this way 
 succeeded in raising the level of the water, and 
 floating his vessels ; as these advanced the dam 
 was moved forward. This original device cost 
 
184 LAKE BALKASH. 
 
 superhuman efforts, but delay was out of the 
 question, and it was necessary to make the best 
 use of anything that came to hand. The last 
 impediment having been thus overcome, the expe- 
 dition reached Lake Balkash. Here it was found 
 that the boats required repairing, and for this 
 purpose MfantiefE took them to the estuary of the 
 Ak-su, where the shore is sandy and they could 
 be hauled up, and again put in order. This done, 
 he sent one of his subordinates, Bulatoff, with a 
 party in one boat to Cape Chaukkar, with orders 
 to survey the northern shore from the cape to the 
 Ayaguz ; whilst he himself put off in the other to 
 take soundings, and test the accuracy of previous 
 surveys along the southern shore, from the 
 Ayaguz to the Ak-su. A third party was in- 
 structed to continue the survey from the Ak-su to 
 the Kara-tal, and explore both these rivers for 
 fifty versts up-stream. A violent storm prevented 
 Bulatoff from accomplishing his task. Off the 
 promontory of Chaukkar he fell in with a current 
 which carried him towards the mouth of the 
 Lepsa. Anxious to meet his commanding officer, 
 who had already started for the mouth of the 
 Ayaguz, he coasted along the southern shore in 
 an easterly direction; but was shipwrecked off 
 the rocky cape of Aulieta, where, owing to the 
 violence of the gale, his cables parted, his anchor 
 was lost, and his boat cast ashore. In this plight 
 he decided on sending the boat with the Cossacks 
 
EESULTS OF NIFANTIEPF's SUEVETS. 185 
 
 to the mouth of the Ak-su for repairs, whilst he 
 pushed on by land to the Ayaguz ; hence he 
 surveyed the northern shore as far as Cape 
 Chaukkar. 
 
 Nifantieff's voyage was not altogether success- 
 ful. He certainly accomplished a survey of the 
 southern shore ; but, on returning, his boat sus- 
 tained considerable damage, owing to stress of 
 weather. All these misadventures decided him 
 on postponing further operations till the following 
 year, particularly as the Cossacks had continually 
 suffered from sea-sickness. On the 20th of Sep- 
 tember the boats were laid up for the winter at 
 the mouth of the Ak-su, and Nifantieff, taking 
 the anchors, ropes, and sails with him, returned 
 to Kopal. 
 
 We will not follow him in his second year's 
 explorations — suffice it to say, that in spite of 
 great difficulties and hardships, the survey of the 
 south-eastern shore of the lake and the delta of 
 the Hi was completed, and the navigability of the 
 lake ascertained. 
 
 One great difficulty attending the navigation of 
 Lake Balkash is caused by the many rocky penin- 
 sulas which project far into the lake, especially on 
 the north-west and west, and these, from the 
 sunken rocks by which they are beset, are almost 
 unapproachable in bad weather ; the southern 
 shores are low, overgrown with reeds, and ex- 
 tremely shallow. 
 
186 LAKE BALKASn. 
 
 Fogs are of rare occurrence, and then only in 
 autumn, and are not dense enougli to obstruct the 
 navigation ; but storms are violent and frequent, 
 although not of long duration. The lake freezes 
 over in the end of November or towards the 
 middle of December, opening again in March. 
 The ice is of no great thickness, but sufficiently 
 strong to bear the ordinary winter traffic. The 
 future importance of the lake depends in a great 
 measure on the navigability of the river Hi ; for 
 when the districts round Kulja, which have so 
 recently been the scenes of the most horrible 
 bloodshed and desolation, are restored to a new 
 life, a great deal of the traffic with "Western 
 China will pass this way, and Lake Balkash and 
 the Hi may then become a great artery for the 
 communications between the north-west and 
 south-east. 
 
HUMBOLDT S THEORY. 
 
 1S7 
 
 LAKE ALA-KUL. 
 
 Humboldt's theory on the lake — Topography — Meaning of the 
 name — Geographical position and height — Alternation in 
 level — Rivers flowing into it — Subsidiary lakes ; Sassik- 
 kul, or ' the stinking lake ;' JSlanash-kul, or ' the open 
 lake * — Island of Aral-tiube — Russian settlement — Fate of 
 Chuguchak — New Russo-Chinese trade-route — Ala-knl in 
 summer — Barlyk range — Russo-Chinese frontier — Arasan, 
 or mineral springs — The Ehbi wind — Legend concerning 
 it — Inhabitants. 
 
 Next to Lake Balkash, and until comparatively 
 recent times connected with it, is Lake Ala-kul, 
 or, more correctly, Alak-kul, well known througli 
 the writings of Humboldt as the supposed centre 
 of the volcanic forces of Central Asia until 
 Schrenck personally visited it and found no trace 
 of eruptive rocks either on the islands or round 
 the lake. Lake Ala-kul is not easily mistaken, 
 for it is the third largest lake as you travel east 
 from the Caspian, the Aral coming first. Lake 
 Balkash second, and then Ala-kul.' 
 
 A belt of desert marked with desiccated lake- 
 beds and sand-waves, about sixty miles in extent, 
 
 ' Issyk-kul, of much greater extent, lies several degrees 
 farther south. 
 
188 LAKE ALA-KUL. 
 
 separates Lakes Ala-kul and Balkash, although, 
 as we have said, they were united at no very- 
 distant period, Ala-kul now, however, is an 
 entirely distinct basin.^ 
 
 Three ranges pour their streams into it ; on the 
 north rises Tarbagatai, separated from the lake 
 by a wide and thickly inhabited valley, on the 
 east towers the Barlyk range, and on the south- 
 west Ala-tau. The angle formed by these moun- 
 tains contains the bulk of its water, whilst towards 
 the west the level country is flooded for many 
 miles in the direction of Balkash; and on the 
 south a row of small lakes links it with Jelanash- 
 kul, whence a narrow valley dividing Barlyk from 
 Ala-tau leads to the Mongolian steppe. 
 
 At the present day Ala-kul consists of three 
 lakes known under the general name of Ala-kul 
 or " spotted lake," though some think that this 
 name is, strictUy speaking, only applicable to the 
 easternmost and largest of the three, whose 
 water has a briny flavour, the centre one being 
 called Urgali, and the westernmost Sassik-kul. 
 The northern Tartars, with their guttural ac- 
 cent, pronounce it Ala-gul. On the Chinese, 
 and many maps copied from them, the Kalmuk 
 name Alak-tugul-nor, or " lake of the spotted 
 
 ' Friar Eubruquis, who travelled through this country in 1254, 
 apparently mistook Ala-kul for a part of Lake Balkash, but his 
 topography is somewhat difficult to identify. See Schuyler's 
 Turkistan, i. 402, et seq^g. 
 
KIRGHIZ AND KALMUK NAMES. 189 
 
 bull," is given to it. But the Kalmuks now 
 living in its vicinity do not recognize this 
 name, and call it Ala-kul, as do also the Kirghiz 
 and Russians. A great many of the topographical 
 features of the country have been renamed by the 
 Kirghiz as they spread over this region, but the 
 most important about which they had heard 
 before they came preserved their old, names. For 
 instance, they had heard of the river Ili before 
 they occupied its banks, and its name was there- 
 fore retained. The new Kirghiz names are 
 generally borrowed from some characteristic 
 feature, hence it is always interesting to inquire 
 into the etymology of these words. 
 
 It is evident, as M. Semeonoff remarks, that 
 the Kirghiz called Ala-kul " the spotted lake " 
 because of its islands, to distinguish it from lakes 
 Zaisan, Issyk-kul, and even Sassik-kul, which 
 have no islands. The Kalmuk name is curious, 
 but we find many such terms applied to mountains 
 in the steppe, as, for instance Turaigir, i.e. spotted 
 horse ; and in the same way Alak-tugul (spotted 
 bull) may probably refer to some mountain near 
 the lake, or to one of its islands. Its ancient 
 name was Gurgeh-nor, or lake of bridges, doubt- 
 less from the long, narrow promontories which 
 extend far into the lake, and when its level was 
 unusually low may have reached from shore to 
 shore, and formed isthmuses of dry land or 
 natural bridges. 
 
190 LAKE ALA-KUL. 
 
 Not very long ago an istlimus of this kind, now 
 submerged in the centre, might have been seen. 
 The geographical position of the lake was accu- 
 rately fixed in 1862 by astronomical observations, 
 and topographical surveys have since then been 
 made of its shores by officers of the Siberian 
 corps. Its approximate height above ocean level 
 has been calculated to be about 780 feet, or very 
 nearly that of Lake Balkash, whilst Lake Zaisan 
 to the north-east is considerably higher,'' As we 
 have said, Ala-kul now consists of three lakes, 
 but these were doubtless formerly united in one, 
 and are so represented by the Chinese maps, their 
 authors probably never having heard of more than 
 one lake. The appearance of the sands, the shores 
 here and there rising in cliff's, bearing evident 
 traces of having been once washed by the waves, 
 which have now receded to some distance, and 
 lastly the desiccated lake-beds, all indicate un- 
 mistakably a former higher level of its waters. 
 
 ' The question of the height of Lakes Ala-kul and Balkash 
 has been the subject of some geographical controversy. Golu- 
 bieff, from whose account of Ala-kul I have borrowed these 
 particulars, estimates Ala-kul to be 1200 feet above the sea, 
 Balkash between 900 and 1200, whilst he gives 1900 as the 
 height of the town of Chuguchak Semeonoff, however, shows 
 that Balkash cannot be more than 780 feet, and that Ala-kul 
 lies considerably below Zaisan, whose height is generally ad- 
 mitted to be 1300 feet. If we consider the difEculty of deter- 
 mining heights in the heart of the continent, and the delicate 
 instruments required for this purpose, we may leave a wide 
 margin for possible errors. 
 
ALTEENATIONS IN LEVEL. THE IMEL. J. 91 
 
 Schrenk, wlio visited it in 1832, noticed two 
 smaller lakes of recent formation immediately to 
 the south, showing that its water had recently 
 subsided. 
 
 The Kirghiz are comparatively new comers, 
 and have no traditions of the former union of the 
 lakes, but their testimony as to the changes which 
 Ala-kul has undergone since they knew it is 
 interesting, for they assert that its level was 
 formerly considerably higher, and that their fore- 
 fathers remember the time when the northern 
 shore was submerged for a distance of nearly 
 1800 feet beyond the present water- mark. It 
 then fell, and twenty-seven years ago stood so 
 low that small islands, now 200 yards from the 
 mainland, came to be united with it. Ever since 
 it has been gradually rising, as may be seen by 
 the isthmuses of Uzunai and Naryn-uzak, where 
 some years ago Kirghiz and caravans encamped 
 and crossed, but which are now partially under 
 water. 
 
 The neighbouring mountains supply an abun- 
 dance of water to the lake. The most important 
 of the streams joining it is the Imel or Emil, 
 which in spring swells to the size of a torrent, 
 and hurls great boulders down to the valley, 
 tearing up trees of great age growing along its 
 upper course, and stranding them in the valley 
 below, to the great profit of the inhabitants. At 
 all other seasons of the year the streams are 
 
192 LAKE ALA-KUL. 
 
 fordable, and even the Imel, where it is crossed by 
 the caravan road, is in the month of August only 
 seventy feet wide. 
 
 All these little rivers form small lakes at their 
 estuaries, thickly overgrown with reeds, which 
 cover a vast area to the south of Sassik-kul, and 
 form a belt along its northern shore. In spring 
 these swamps are inundated, and the subsiding 
 water leaves large stagnant pools, which in 
 summer exhale unwholesome miasma, whence the 
 lake derives its name Sassik-kul, i. e. " stinking 
 or suflFocating lake." 
 
 For a distance of twenty versts from the 
 southern extremity of Ala-kul, extends a belt of 
 small lakes, formed by a few mountain streams, and 
 terminating in Jelanash-kul, which must not be 
 omitted in this notice. This lake is small, six 
 miles long, by two and a half wide, with bitter 
 but hardly saline water. Its name signifies " open 
 lake," because it is exposed to view on all sides. 
 
 Jelanash-kul has no communication with Ala- 
 kul, and is separated from the chain of small 
 lakes forming a continuation with the latter by a 
 narrow stony ridge, Tash-kala, consisting of 
 gravel and pebbles, and formed by the action of 
 the waves raised by the wind, which blows for the 
 greater part of the year in the direction of Ala- 
 kul, The waves have piled up a regular embank- 
 ment of small pebbles which is continually increas- 
 ing ; ever working in one direction, and obedient 
 
ISLAND OF ABAL-TIUBE. 193 
 
 to the laws of meclianics, it has imparted a curre 
 to this natural breakwater, like that given by 
 engineers to moles and jetties. The isthmus of 
 Naryn-uzak, now submerged, was formed in the 
 same way, and of similar substances. From the 
 waters of Ala-kul rises the rocky cone of Aral-tiube, 
 which had once a great reputation as an active 
 volcano of the central continent. Humboldt sup- 
 posed it to be so, no less fi-om the accounts 
 received from the Tartars, as from his own belief 
 in the existence of volcanoes in the heart of Asia.* 
 
 Near Aral-tiube is a second small island, and 
 some versts to the north a rock rises straight up 
 from the water connected with the shore by a nar- 
 row neck of sand. When the level of Ala-kul was 
 higher, the isthmus was submerged, and the rock 
 formed a third island, Baigazi-tiube. The summit 
 of the first of these peaks is nearly 630 feet above 
 the level of the lake. It may be seen from a 
 considerable distance, and its dark solitary mass 
 brooding over the green surface of the lake 
 enhances the gloom of the desolate landscape. 
 
 Along the valley on the northern shore of Ala- 
 kul the Russians long ago established relations 
 with China. This was the point where the 
 frontiers of the two empires were more closely 
 joined than elsewhere. 
 
 ' It is hardly necessary to remark that Humboldt's conclu- 
 sions on volcanic phenomena in Central Asia have been remarkably 
 confirmed by the late Dr. Stoliczka's researches north of Kash- 
 gar. — (See Eep. of a Mission to Yarkand, 1873, pp. 466 — 469.) 
 
 
 
194 LAKE ALA-KUL. 
 
 A Eussian settlement was founded on the r^ver 
 Urdjar, wMcli already contained in 1863 nearly 
 two hundred houses, and had every prospect of 
 becoming a flourishing place. Seventy miles to 
 the B.S.B. of it was Ohuguchak, numbering 10,000 
 houses ° before the Mohammedan insurrection. 
 
 The valley is abundantly watered, and fertile. 
 The inhabitants, Russians as well as Chinese, pro- 
 duce crops of corn and vegetables. Along the 
 road from Urdjar to Chuguchak lie Kirghiz fields, 
 and twenty versts before reaching the latter place 
 are scattered Chinese farms, becoming more and 
 more numerous every year as the population in- 
 
 ' By the treaty of Kiilja (1851), the Eussians were allowed 
 to establish a factory and to have agents at Chuguchak, and this 
 town, owing to its geographical position, might have become an 
 important depot for the trade between Russia and China, had 
 it not fallen in 1865 into the hands of the Mohammedan insur- 
 gents, and by them been reduced to ashes. Owing to the dis- 
 turbed state of these frontier provinces a new trade-route had 
 to be explored, and General Poltoratsky having pointed out the 
 superior advantages of the line of the Black Irtysh and Bulun- 
 tohoi (recently surveyed by Sosnoffsky) , an enterprising firm of 
 Moscow merchants organized in 1872 a large caravan to pene- 
 trate, by this way if possible, into China. From the account given 
 by Morozoff's clerk or caravan bashi, communicated by Polto- 
 ratsky to the Geographical Society of St. Petersburg, it appears 
 that they succeeded in selling most of their wares, but were 
 turned back by the Chinese at Barkul. No subsequent attempts 
 have, as far as I am aware, been made to develope this new 
 Busso-Chinese trade-route ; but it is not improbable that the 
 establishment of a Chinese embassy at St. Petersburg, announced 
 by the newspapers, may be the beginning of a new era of com- 
 mercial intercourse between the two empires. 
 
ALA-KUL IN SUMMEE. 196 
 
 creases. Amongst these it is not unusual to see 
 in the midst of fields of vegetables variegated 
 plantations of poppy, beneath whose flowery 
 carpet lurks the future poison. Beyond these 
 farms lies Chuguchak in the midst of a smihng 
 landscape. But the climate is so severe that fruit- 
 trees cannot be successfully cultivated ; water and 
 other melons, though grown in large quantities, are 
 of bad quality. 
 
 On approaching Ala-kul the soil becomes more 
 sterile at every ^tep, sandy saline patches of soil 
 appear now entirely bare, now thinly covered 
 with sickly plants. The streams which descend 
 the mountains with bright limpid water, splashing 
 noisily in their rocky beds, expand into lakes, or 
 disappear imperceptibly, imparting their moistujpe 
 to the soil, and sustaining the thick growth of 
 reeds. The Kirghiz retreat to the mountains in 
 order to avoid the summer heats, and the silence 
 of the desert is unbroken by any sound. The 
 solitary traveller will in vain seek for signs of life, 
 and will only be deceived by the mirage. Per- 
 chance his attention may be attracted to a column 
 of smoke rising in the distance. " Shaitan Shalit ! " 
 exclaims the Kirghiz, and the less superstitious 
 traveller knows it to be the tornado rising from 
 the sandy plains. The shores of Ala-kul in some 
 places bare, in others are covered with reeds, and 
 in summer swarm with water-fowl and mosquitoes. 
 On leaving Ala-kul you will long remember with 
 
 2 
 
196 LAKE ALA-KUL. 
 
 dread the tormenting little persecutors, and the 
 sharp metallic voices of swans and geese will long 
 ring in your ears. Ala-tau and Barlyk approach 
 quite close to the lake. The former is well known, 
 but the latter awaits its explorer. Several of the 
 peaks are visible from the shore of the lake, the 
 highest of them, Ak-chek, being only 2800 feet 
 above sea-level. 
 
 In the spurs of both ranges are many valleys, 
 with excellent pasture and arable land, watered 
 by streams whose banks are fringed with Lonicera, 
 barberry, dog-rose, and clumps of poplars. 
 
 A line of Chinese outposts formerly passed along 
 
 the Barlyk range, marking the Eusso-Chinese 
 
 frontier in the west.'' Bach of these consisted of 
 
 " This was the position of affairs when M. Golubieff wrote his 
 report (1863); but it is difficult to say what may be the actual 
 state of the frontier guards in the extreme west. Veniukoff, in 
 his review of the frontiers of Russia in Asia, says that the 
 treaty of Chuguchak (1864) was never fully carried out, pro- 
 bably owing to the outbreak in 1 865 of the Dungan insurrec- 
 tion, and the Dzungarian section of the frontier, from Khan- 
 Tengri on the south to Khabar-assu on the north, remains prac- 
 tically undefined. East of this again in the Altai-Sayan section, 
 he estimates the Chinese regular forces at 580 Manchus and 
 Chinese distributed in two towns situated 2000 versts (about 
 1300 miles) from the Great Wall, i. e. from the frontiers of China 
 proper. " From Kobdo and Uliassutai," he says, " we could drive 
 the Chinese out at any time, for their fortifications are so weak, 
 that in 1870 and 1872 bands of badly-armed insurgents had no 
 difficulty in taking them. But," he adds, " it is clearly our interest 
 not only not to molest the Chinese in this part of Central Asia; 
 but, on the contrary, to use every means in our power to consoli- 
 date their rule over the local nomads. " A glance at the map will 
 
FEONTIER GUARDS. — WARM SPRINGS. 197 
 
 a few small houses, surrounded by yurtas, to 
 accommodate the guard and their families, and the 
 officer in charge, or galda ; in the background 
 stands a small temple. 
 
 The nomad Kalmuks in the neighbourhood 
 suppHed the guard. At the more important 
 stations, such as Manitu on the Bmil, and at 
 Ohagan-togai, they occupied themselves with 
 husbandry, and bred sheep and cattle. But the 
 poverty and dirt of these stations are very striking, 
 as well as the naive, consequential air of the 
 officers. The galda, on matter how ragged his 
 dress, will not hesitate to hold ceremonious 
 audiences, seated on a saddle for want of some 
 other article of furniture. 
 
 Not far from Chagan-togai, and nearer Ala-kul, 
 the warm mineral springs of Arassan ^ bubble up at 
 the foot of a rock of porphyry. They are nearly 
 750 feet above the lake. There are two of them 
 both containing sulphur, of the same kind as 
 those at Kopal, but warmer, their temperature 
 on issuing from the ground being 110° Fahr. 
 
 The Arassan springs appear to have been wor- 
 
 at once convince the reader, how unwise it would he for Russia 
 to advance beyond the splendid natural frontier afforded by the 
 mountain ranges of south-western Siberia, into the steppes and 
 deserts on the south. 
 
 ' This appears to be the word used by the natives for springs 
 in general. Schuyler says that numerous warm springs of a 
 medicinal character, called arasan, are found to the west and 
 south-west of Sairam-nor. 
 
198 LAKE ALA-KUL. 
 
 sMpped by the Kalmuks, who have built near them 
 a small shrine, in which are to be seen painted 
 images. But the Kalmuks, driven out by the 
 Kirghiz, have retired from here, and the springs 
 which they formerly visited have fallen into the 
 hands of their late rivals, and especially the 
 Tartars, who bring their women hither to be cured 
 of barrenness. 
 
 In 1862 meteorological observations were com- 
 menced at the Russian factory at Chuguchak, but 
 as this town a few years later fell into the hands 
 of the Dungans and their Kirghiz allies, it is 
 impossible to look for important scientific data 
 from this direction. 
 
 The shores of Ala-kul are remarkable for 
 the sultriness of the summer heat, and at this 
 period of the year they are uninhabitable. The 
 Kirghiz seek pasturage for their cattle, and a 
 cooler climate in the mountains, only descending 
 again in Aiigust to fix their winter encampments 
 round Ala-kul, where they find convenient shelter 
 for their tents and herds. In October the first 
 snow falls, in November Ala-kul freezes up, and 
 does not thaw again before April. 
 
 On the northern shore of the lake, where the 
 population is sedentary, the summer heat is not 
 great, and the frost not severe, though the ther- 
 mometer often falls to 13° Fahr. The S.B. wind 
 called Bhbi (Yubi), blows from autumn till April, 
 through the narrow defile separating Ala-tau from 
 
THE EHBI WIND. 199 
 
 the Barlyk range, leading out on to Lake Kyzyl-tuz 
 or Balkatsi-nor. This wind blows from regions 
 bare of snow, and is so violent at times as to have 
 the force of a hurricane, raising clouds of snow 
 and dust, and putting a stop to aU coromunications. 
 Solitary travellers have been known to perish 
 during one of these wind-storms, and be covered up 
 in the snow, and it is said whole villages have 
 been buried in this way. Caravans bound for 
 Kulja are afraid of it, and always wait till it is 
 over, or prefer the road through the mountains, 
 rather than keep to the level, and expose them- 
 selves to its fury.* The Ehbi wind is warm and 
 dry, probably because it blows across snowless 
 tracts. The Kirghiz and Tartars have a legend 
 that this wind issues from some caverns which the 
 Kalmuks have in vain tried to fill up with stones ; 
 every time they make the attempt the wind blows 
 the stones aside, and bursts forth with renewed 
 strength. They place these caverns somewhere 
 between Ala-tau and Barlyk, but the nearer one 
 gets to these mountains the more misty and fan- 
 ciful are the stories told of them, so that they are 
 doubtless as much the work of imagination as the 
 legends of volcanic eruption of Aral-tiube. The 
 
 ° Schuyler says that when this wmd blows through the 
 defile, it is felt at Sergiopol, 250 miles oflP, and that M. Zakharoflf, 
 in passing through it, was immediately obliged to leave the 
 main road, and take a steeper path through the mountains. — 
 Ttirhistan, ii. 191. 
 
200 LAKE ALA-KUL. 
 
 natural explanation of the Bhbi is the prevalence 
 of the east wind in winter, which, checked in its 
 progress by the mountains, bursts through the 
 narrow defile into the steppes of Ala-kul. 
 
 In the ravine of Altyn Immel (200, miles to the 
 south-west of Ala-kul) a similar wind blows in 
 winter, also called Bhbi, by the Kirghiz. It 
 clears away the snow from the IH valley, thus 
 rendering it habitable for the nomads in winter. 
 
 It only remains to add a few words on the actual 
 inhabitants of the lake shores. These at the end 
 of the last century were Kalmuks (Dzungars). At 
 Chugutsa, near the Urdjar of to-day, the last of 
 their Khans, Amursana, formed his camp. 
 
 When the Kahnuks were subjugated in Kien- 
 long's time, the Chinese founded the town of 
 Chuguchak at this spot. But the site proved to 
 be unfavourable, owing to its dampness, and it 
 was soon removed to its present position. 
 
 The Chinese, exasperated by their long wars, 
 and determined to rid themselves for ever of so 
 dangerous an enemy, did not spare the Kalmuks. 
 They were slain nearly to a man, only a few 
 saving themselves by flight. In this way the 
 steppes of Ala-kul and the valleys of the neigh- 
 bouring mountains were entirely depopulated, but 
 not for long, and the Kirghiz coming from the 
 west soon occupied the free lands. 
 
 At the present day the Kirghiz of the Middle 
 Horde inhabit the country round the lake. Its 
 
INHABITANTS. 201 
 
 soutliern shores, together with the neighbouring 
 valleys of the Ala-tau and Barlyk ranges, are 
 occupied by Kizais, whilst to their north and to 
 the east of the lake, along the valley of the Bmil 
 and the slopes of the Tarbagatai, are encamped 
 the Tumentsi. 
 
 All these tribes are included in the Sergiopol 
 district of the Semipalatinsk region.^ 
 
 " The above particulars of Lake Ala-kul are for the most 
 part borrowed from an article by the late M. Golubieff, of 
 the Imperial Russian staff corps, who commanded a surveying 
 party sent in 1859, to explore this part of Asia ; and the article 
 on Lake Balkash from a paper by General Babkoif, of the same 
 corps, who directed the topographical survey of that lake in 
 1864. 
 
202 
 
 THE STAEOVBETSI. 
 
 Origin of raskol — Society in Central Eussia twenty years ago — 
 Eepressive measui'es of Emperor Nicholas — Estreats of the 
 Starovertsi — Grigorieflf's note on the Lob-nortsi-r-Histori- 
 ca] sketch of " Kamenshiki "^ — Their refuges in Siberia — 
 Bielovodiye — Meaning of the word " Kamenshiki " — First 
 settlers — Their " retreats " in the mountains ; huts, occu- 
 pations, fishing and trapping expeditions — Beaver-hunting 
 — Mode of obtaining salt — Ineffectual measures of Govern- 
 ment — First discovery of refugee Starovertsi — Their patri- 
 archal mode of life ; system of administering justice ; 
 quarrels and dissensions ; crimes and immorality — Extra- 
 ordinary punishment — Intercourse with Chinese — Neces- 
 sity for adopting more effectual measures of government — 
 They give themselves up to the Chinese, and are sent to 
 Kobdo — Captivity there — Eelease and return to Siberia — 
 They open negotiations with Eussian Government — Inter- 
 view with Lieut. Priyesjeff — Empress Catherine II. par- 
 dons them— Visit of M. Printz in 1863— Villages of 
 Uimon and Koksa — Crossing the Holsun range — Camp in 
 the forest — Bear-hunting adventures — Steep ascent of the 
 pass — Splendid view — Preeipitous descent — The Cherno- 
 voi or Black Water — Luxuriant vegetation — Apiaries — 
 Valley of the Bukhtarma — Settlement of Sennoi^ — Bielki or 
 snowy mountains — Village of Fikalka — Farms of Kamen- 
 shiki — Bukhtarma honey — Warm summer — Fur districts — 
 Mode of catching sables — Vagabond habits of Kamenshiki 
 — Their comparison with outlawed communities in America 
 — Conclusion. 
 
 As Colonel Prejevalsky tas alluded in his travels 
 to the " Starovertsi," or Old Behevers, and their 
 
EUSSIAN SOCIETY TWENTY YEAES AGO. 203 
 
 visit to Lake Lob, it may not be out of place 
 here to give a short account of these much 
 persecuted people. It is hardly necessary to 
 remind the reader of their origin, suflfice it to 
 say that when the patriarch Nikon introduced 
 his reforms and innovations into Russia in the 
 time of Peter the Great, a large body of the 
 clergy and laity refused to abide by them, and 
 remained strict adherents to the religion of their 
 ancestors. Hence arose the rashol or spht in the 
 National Church, which has been described by 
 Dean Stanley, Mouravieff, Dr. Neale, Wallace, and 
 others. 
 
 I myself came across some of the Starovertsi 
 when staying nearly twenty years ago in a small 
 town in one of the central provinces of Russia, 
 My acquaintances there belonged chiefly to the 
 mercantile class, and it is in their midst that the 
 spirit of conservatism in religious matters is so 
 strong. I was on visiting terms with two families, 
 the one representing the old sectarian clique with 
 its clinging attachment to the habits, customs, and 
 dress of bygone days, the other belonging to the 
 progressive party of modern Russia. The head of 
 
 the former, by name Bvgraf Vassilievitch B , 
 
 was a man between sixty and seventy, he wore 
 the long black frock-coat of a former generation, 
 and his white beard added dignity to a handsome 
 and expressive countenance ; though undoubtedly 
 a Starover, he showed no signs of dissent from the 
 
204 THE STAEOVERTSI. 
 
 orthodox Churcli, and even filled the official position 
 of mayor of the town, but he neither smoked, nor 
 drank wine, nor played cards, and the women of 
 his family led a life of complete seclusion. Once, 
 however, when dining at his house, I was honoured 
 by an introduction to his wife and daughter ; the 
 latter was of a delicate refined beauty such as may 
 be met with in many an English home, and her 
 charms were well set off by the Kokoshka, or high 
 head-dress with the long veD. falling behind, for 
 which the women of these districts are remarkable. 
 Evgraf Vassilievitch spoke but little, this however 
 might have been accounted for by my then imper- 
 fect knowledge of the Kussian language. Among 
 the books that he lent me was the best known stan- 
 dard novel of the day " Yuri Miloslafsky," written 
 much in the same style as Walter Scott's novels, 
 and another work in modern Greek. The other 
 family I visited was of quite a different stamp. M. 
 Obrastsoff was a well-to-do, prosperous merchant 
 who in dress and appearance followed the fashions 
 of the day, he kept open house once a week, to 
 which all were made welcome, and his daughter, 
 very gay and pretty, played quadrilles and smoked 
 cigarettes. His two sons assisted their father iu 
 the mornings at the pristan or wharf, where stood 
 his warehouse, in which was stored the flax that he 
 bought during the winter, and shipped in spring 
 for St. Petersburg. In the afternoon they either 
 amused themselves by driving their fast-trotting 
 
EEPEESSIVE MEASURES. 205 
 
 horses in liglit racing-sledges, or joining the 
 wealth and aristocracy of the place at the guldnia 
 or promenade, a very solemn affair, where every 
 one in their showiest equipage, paraded at foot's 
 pace round and round the solitary square in the 
 little town. M. Obrastsoff once showed me a medal 
 he had received for services rendered to the 
 Government in the reign of the Emperor Nicholas 
 in assisting the police to apprehend some of the 
 Starovertsi, a work he said of considerable diflB- 
 culty, and some personal risk, for in those days 
 they were very numerous, and often offered a 
 determined resistance to the authorities. Their 
 spirit and organization, however, were at last com- 
 pletely broken by the stringent measures taken 
 against them ; the few who still refused to submit 
 left their homes and sought refuge in all sorts of 
 out-of-the-way nooks and corners, but generally 
 on the very outskirts of the vast empire, where 
 they were beyond the interference of the police, 
 and were allowed the free and unrestrained 
 exercise of their religion. The Governments of 
 Archangel and Olonetz have always been their 
 great haven of refuge, and in the midst of the 
 almost inaccessible tundras or bogs, they built 
 convents, monasteries, and churches which were 
 secretly supported by their wealthy brethren at 
 Moscow and St. Petersburg. Some of these 
 remained till within the last twenty or thirty 
 years, and, for aught I know to the contrary, may 
 
206 THE STAEOVEETSI. 
 
 exist still ; but the backbone of dissent was broken 
 in the reign of Mcholas. Many of the pomortsi, 
 or owners of coasting vessels on the shores of the 
 White Sea, ia the Gulf of Onega, and towards 
 Kem and Kola, when I lived among them, were 
 Starovertsi. Their vessels, mostly lugger-rigged, 
 and a few schooners, were named after their 
 patron saints, on whom they placed such implicit 
 reliance that it was the exception to find any 
 nautical instrument, or even a compass among 
 them. 
 
 What the particular sect of the Starovertsi 
 were who visited Lob-nor^ Colonel Prejevalsky 
 
 ' Grigorieff suggests that these fishermen on Lake Lob are not 
 only not the remnants of the aborigines, but new comers of 
 quite a recent date — probably not before the end of the seven- 
 teenth century, and very closely related to the Russians, in 
 fact, none other than the Staro-obriadtsi, who had made their 
 way thither from Southern Siberia. Indeed reports to this 
 effect were current in the last-named country. If this be the 
 case, continues Grigorieff in his note to the Russian edition 
 of fitter's Asia, the dislike of these fishermen to meat and 
 bread is easily explained — not that they cannot digest such 
 food, but that when they happen to visit Korla on fast-days, 
 which are of frequent occurrence in the Greek Church, they 
 could on no account touch meat or wheaten cakes made with 
 butter, and would show their disgust of such food if they 
 chanced to swallow some of it unawares. From PrejevaJsky's 
 narrative we glean that this is not the case, the population on 
 the Tarim and Lake Lob being described as a curious mixture of 
 refugees from all parts of Turkestan, including Sarts, Kirghiz, 
 and Tangutans. That Starovertsi have recently visited Lake 
 Lob is however evident, from the account given by the natives 
 to Prejevalsky of the sudden appearance of this people. 
 
THE KAMENSHIKI. 207 
 
 does not tell us, but an interesting account is 
 given by a traveller, Mr. Printz, of a visit in 1863 
 to the KamensMld, of the Bukhtarminsk volost of 
 the Government of Tomsk, from which we extract 
 the following : — 
 
 After the year 1 747 when the Government took 
 over from Demidoff the mines and works in the 
 Altai, many new settlements were founded in the 
 mountains, and the whole district received the 
 official name of Kolyvano-Voskresensk, after the 
 first mines opened there. 
 
 The boundaries of this new district were defined, 
 and the Empress Elizabeth, on sending Brigadier- 
 General Beer there in 1747, bade him take pos- 
 session in the name of H.I.M. of the Kolyvano- 
 Yoskresensky, Barnaoul, and Shulbin works, 
 together with all the land, mechanics, and pea- 
 sants belonging to them. He was further directed 
 to construct a chain of forts to protect the works 
 and mines from the inroads of the Kalmuks of 
 Dzungaria. In 1759 the lines of Kolyvan and 
 Kuznetsk were completed, and formed the boun- 
 dary of the empire from Ust-Kamennogorsk to 
 Kuznetsk; this was called " the old line." But 
 as the mining industry developed, miners and 
 settlers soon crossed this frontier, so that by 
 1764 a second line had to be laid down in a 
 south-easterly direction, entering the mountains 
 at Tegeretsky outpost and Fort Yerkhny Charish, 
 whence it continued in a north and north-easterly 
 
208 THE STAEOVEETSI. 
 
 direction to the town of Kuznetsk. Soutli of 
 Tegeretsk tke line passed as before to Ust- 
 Kamennogorsk on the Irtysh, whence it was, how- 
 ever, subsequently advanced up the Bukhtarma. 
 Before the Kuznetsk and Kolyvan lines were 
 drawn, the districts included by them were called 
 " Bielovodiye." Many of the inhabitants of 
 north-western Russia made their way hither in 
 numbers following on the tracks of the trapper 
 and hunter, some to rid themselves of the burdens 
 and duties imposed upon them by the state, others 
 to escape punishment, all to seek a free life, to 
 trade with the natives, and hunt wild animals, 
 unburdened by taxes, and unshackled by official 
 inspection. In order to secure themselves against 
 the attacks of Tartars and Kalmuks they founded 
 their first settlements in the dense impassable 
 forests of the present district of Kuznetsk, where 
 those of their number who adhered to the old 
 belief made for themselves caves {shiti) and her- 
 mitages. This took place between 1719 and 1723. 
 As soon as the Kolyvan-Kuznetsk frontier was 
 adopted, and the country parcelled out into dis- 
 tricts, the whole of this region lost its reputation 
 as a free land, and the hermitages and " retreats " 
 became in course of time villages. All or most of 
 those who had migrated hither, including persons 
 of every rank and station in life, and who were 
 called frishelsti, or immigrants, were included in 
 the third general census (1764), and were made 
 
209 
 
 liable to work in the mines and Government 
 works. Hence the term " Bielovodiye," caine to 
 be henceforward applied to those uninhabited dis- 
 tricts lying beyond the Kolyvan-Kuznetsk frontier 
 line in a south-easterly direction towards China. 
 This country was entirely uninhabited, yet it 
 abounded in all the requirements of life, and 
 could serve as a refuge for all who sought con- 
 cealment. To this new "Bielovodiye" to "the 
 rock," Starovertsi of all classes and conditions 
 began to flock. Here they were unmolested and 
 feared no pursuit, here they were at liberty to 
 exercise the rights of their religious belief. 
 
 These dissenters were soon joined by others 
 who belonged to no particular sect, but were for 
 the most part runaway operatives from the works, 
 and persons of every class who wished to escape 
 from labour and taxation. Among them in more 
 recent times were emigrants from distant parts of 
 the empire, from the Government of Archangel, 
 Skiti, or cave-dwellers, from the Government of 
 Olonetz and the forests of Solikama, &c. 
 
 To this day there are ravines in the Altai 
 mountains called " Kamen " (rock), and their 
 inhabitants are usually spoken of as people living 
 "in the rock," or " beyond the rock," whence their 
 name of KamensMM, or " people of the rock." 
 Their first settlement, tradition has it, was com- 
 composed of only four men, who retired " to the 
 rock " from religious motives, and founded their 
 
210 THE STAKOVERTSI. 
 
 habitation upwards of a century ago on the river 
 Ulba beyond the Holsun range. But wlien one 
 of their number had been caught, and their 
 retreat discovered, the others, fearful lest a 
 similar fate might await them, retired to the 
 inhospitable and lonely gorges of the Bukhtarma 
 range. But here, whether the gregarious instinct 
 of their nature was too strong for them, or 
 whether impelled by hunger, they did not long lie 
 hid. By degrees they began to show themselves 
 in the nearest Russian settlements, and especially 
 in those whose inhabitants were more favourably 
 disposed towards the raslcol, or "dissent." Their 
 holiness and humility, real or feigned, attracted 
 the inhabitants towards them, and by depicting 
 their " retreat " in as favourable a light as possible 
 they succeeded in persuading others to flee with 
 them to their home in the mountains. In the 
 course of a short time a good many, mostly 
 peasants, made their way thither, having obtained 
 leave from the authorities to absent themselves 
 for the avowed object of hunting, and then 
 remaining away for good and all. 
 
 These " kamenshiki," anxious to avoid all pur- 
 suit, took up their abode in the most inaccessible 
 ravines of the Listviajny range, along the right 
 tributaries of the Bukhtarma, near the sources of 
 the Katuna, Kok-su, and other rivers. They built 
 their huts in the midst of wild scenery, combining, 
 however, a few advantages for their domestic 
 
MOUNTAIN EETEEATS. 211 
 
 cattle, and for agricultural purposes, surrounded 
 on all sides by grand mountains and -well-watered 
 streams. They lived peaceably together observing 
 strictly the rites of their religion. The virgin soil 
 bountifully repaid their agricultural labours, and 
 the skins of wild beasts were a source of untold 
 wealth to the hunters. In short they could enjoy 
 a free and independent life. Fugitives usually 
 started for " the rock " in spring, and on arriving 
 there, if they had time, built themselves log-huts 
 or shanties, or sometimes stayed with others 
 already settled there, helping them with their 
 household work, sowing the corn, mowing the 
 hay, or attending to the fisheries. On the 
 approach of autumn, the best season for hunting 
 the fur animals, they would go on hunting 
 expeditions. 
 
 In the hunting districts, more or less distant 
 from their homes, the Kamenshiki built them- 
 selves rude huts in which they passed the winter 
 occupied during the whole of the time in trapping 
 wild animals. These huts were of the rudest kind, 
 care being always taken, however, that one corner 
 should be over a spring, in order to obtain water 
 without going outside for it, a precaution always 
 adopted to avoid the labour of keeping an opening 
 clear in the ice to some spring. The huts of these 
 trappers were often completely buried in snow- 
 drifts several yards deep, and a small opening was 
 all that marked the entrance. The only faint 
 
 p 2 
 
212 THE STAEOVERTSI. 
 
 signs of life in these snowy wastes and dense 
 forests, were the stack of firewood, the black bath, 
 and the saira, or larder, supported on four trees 
 standing close together, cut off about fifteen feet 
 from ground so as to leave posts on which a few 
 boards were laid, and a sloping roof constructed. 
 In this way they would pass the whole winter 
 engaged in hunting, returning home in spring, 
 when every man brought back his twenty sable 
 and one hundred 'squirrel skins, to say nothing of 
 other kinds. Besides these winter occupations 
 the Kamenshiki would occasionally make expedi- 
 tions to the river Irtysh in small parties of eight, 
 leaving one of their number behind to attend to 
 the house. On reaching the Irtysh they would 
 halt somewhere near the mouth of the Bukhtarma, 
 whence they would ascend to the Narym, a right 
 tributary of the Irtysh. Here the first thing was 
 to build themselves canoes, and then set traps for 
 the sturgeon and sterlet, which they dried on the 
 spot, or jerked in the sun, to facilitate transport, 
 and preserve it from spoiling. These fishing 
 expeditions would sometimes be so successful that 
 they would obtain enough to load ten horses, 
 which were expressly sent for at the close of the 
 season. 
 
 Sometimes, too, small parties of them would 
 proceed from the Bukhtarma to the fisheries on 
 Lake Zaisan, out of which the Irtysh flows. 
 Ascending this river, they would have to run the 
 
FISHING AND TRAPPING. 213 
 
 gauntlet of the cordon of Chinese pickets, where, 
 in order to escape observation, they always 
 travelled at night-time. Arrived at the lake, they 
 followed its right shore to the estuary of the 
 Upper or Black Irtysh, to which they gave the 
 name of " sluggish," and proceeded up its stream 
 for some twenty or thirty miles. Selecting the 
 most convenient spots, they built earthen huts, 
 and pursued their fishing and trapping avocations 
 unmolested by any one. They hunted the beaver 
 and the otter, extracting from the former when 
 skinned the valuable castoreum, which they salted 
 to prevent its spoiling, and afterwards sold to 
 Tashkend and Chinese merchants, who came to 
 them for this purpose from the aouls or Kirghiz 
 encampments, and the left bank of the Irtysh. 
 
 One pressing want of the Kamenshiki was salt, 
 and this was supplied partly by the Kirghiz-Kazaks, 
 and partly by digging it themselves out of the salt 
 lakes on the steppe, about thirty miles, from the 
 Loktieff works. The difficulty of obtaining it 
 from the lacustrine salt-beds was very great, and 
 attended by considerable risk, the greatest pre- 
 cautions being necessary in going thither to escape 
 notice on the road. Taking a sufiicient supply of 
 provisions, the Kamenshiki would issue from the 
 mountains, riding always by night, and halting by 
 day in some unfrequented spot. The salt they 
 collected in the lakes was put into bags slung on 
 either side of their horses, and they returned home 
 
214 THE STAEOVEKTSI. 
 
 in tte same stealthy manner. They procured their 
 domestic cattle, cows and sheep, from the Kirghiz- 
 Kazaks nomadizing on the right bank of the 
 Irtysh, between the rivers Bukhtarma and 
 Narym. 
 
 Many of the Kamenshiki, having been employed 
 in the Government works in various capacities, 
 would now and then invite their friends and 
 relations to a rendezvous, taking care that it 
 should be at a respectful distance from their settle- 
 ment, notwithstanding which they were frequently 
 captured by the authorities. 
 
 The Government, although aware of the colony 
 of outlaws in the Bukhtarma district, was unable 
 to take any eflFectual measures against them, owing 
 to the inaccessible and unknown country in which 
 they lived, and because, sensible of the danger they 
 always ran of being discovered, the Kamenshiki 
 continued to retire farther and farther into the 
 wildest and most unapproachable recesses of the 
 mountains. The first time we hear of their being 
 discovered was in 1761, on the river Turgun-ussu, 
 when Lieutenant Zeleony, commanding a company 
 of soldiers and mining officials to explore new 
 sites for settlements on the Upper Bukhtarma, 
 found in a ravine a small hut with two Russians 
 living in it, whom, however, he did not succeed in 
 capturing. The first detailed accounts of the 
 domestic life, occupations, and industry of these 
 people reached the Government in 1791, soon after 
 
THEIR MODE OF LIFE. 215 
 
 the Imperial pardon had been granted them in an 
 ukaz addressed to General Peel, acting-govemor- 
 general of the principalities of Irkutsk and Koly- 
 van, when they were made liable to a small poll- 
 tax, and later to tribute in kind (Tassak). In the 
 early stage of the existence of the Kamenshiki, 
 when their number was but small, and they were 
 for the most part devotees, their lives were 
 patriarchal iu the extreme, and having cut them- 
 selves off from the world, united by a common lot, 
 they formed a religious brotherhood or community, 
 hving together in peace and harmony. They had 
 no serious disagreements, but when any misunder- 
 standing or dispute arose among them, the case was 
 referred to their " best men," those who possessed 
 the confidence of the whole body, and were dis- 
 tinguished above their fellows for their moral 
 qualities. The decision of these men, which was 
 given verbally, was considered final, and held the 
 place of law. But when reports of the free life led 
 by these people had induced many to join who 
 were chiefly deserters, operatives from the works, 
 criminals punished and unpunished, and others of 
 the same class, their numbers increased, and in 
 equal proportion every kind of wickedness to 
 which unbridled licence could lead. Women were 
 violated, robberies, and even murders were com- 
 mitted. Owing to the preponderance of men, the 
 want of the other sex was greatly felt, and became 
 the chief cause of discord. Wives and daughters 
 
216 THE STAEOVERTSI. 
 
 were abducted, and strife and crime took the place 
 of peace and goodwill. Criminals went unpunished 
 or fell victims to the revenge of the injured party. 
 Their morals grew lax, more particularly owing to 
 the absence of the refining influences of religion. 
 Far removed from churches and clergy, the 
 Kamenshiki neglected all religious observances, 
 and partook of no sacraments. Matters at last 
 became so bad that the very mode of dealing with 
 the most turbulent spirits displayed the greatest 
 severity. It is related how once, in 1788, some of 
 their number caught in the commission of crime 
 were unanimously sentenced to the following 
 extraordinary punishment : two of the criminals 
 were bound to small rafts, and set adrift in the 
 rapid Bukhtarma ; each had a pole given him to 
 save himself from drowning, and a loaf of bread 
 for food. In this way the community, finding it 
 impossible to keep two such miscreants in their 
 midst, and unwilling to execute capital punish- 
 ment on them, determined to get rid of them by 
 leaving blind fate to decide whether they should 
 live or die; one was drowned, the other was 
 washed on to the bank. But as this example did 
 not have the desired effect of restoring order, the 
 ringleaders and some of their confederates were 
 seized and condemned to die. A mere accident 
 saved their lives. One of the Kamenshiki hap- 
 pened to shoot a Chinese military ofl&cer, who, 
 enraged at the occurrence, came to demand that 
 
INTEECOUESB WITH CHINESE. 217 
 
 justice should be done him; finding the people 
 assembled and about to execute their prisoners, he 
 bade his soldiers surround them, and insisted on 
 the release of the doomed men. 
 
 This was not the only occasion that the Kamen- 
 shiki came into contact with the Chinese. They 
 frequently attacked the Kirghiz beyond the Irtysh, 
 who were not slow to revenge themselves by 
 plundering the Kamenshiki. Both sides had re- 
 course to the interference of the Chinese, whose 
 arbitration never carried much weight. 
 
 The internal discords of the Kamenshiki, and 
 the inefficacy of the measures taken by them to 
 restore order caused many to think of more certain 
 means of safety. A succession of bad harvests 
 for three years was an additional incentive to 
 abandon resorts which had grown terrible to them, 
 and return to their former homes, but the dread 
 of the punishment which they had incurred 
 deterred them. At length they decided to place 
 themselves under the protection of the Chinese 
 Government. Accordingly sixty of their families 
 assembled, and proceeded to the Chinese frontier 
 guard-house of Jinghiz-tai, twenty-three miles 
 from the present village of Fikalka. Halting at a 
 little distance from the guard-house, they deputed 
 six of their number to communicate with the noyen, 
 or frontier official, and learn his wishes, but as 
 their envoys did not return, the remainder waited 
 no longer, but threw themselves, their wives, and 
 
218 THJi STAROVERTSI. 
 
 children, on the mercy of the noyen. On arriving 
 at the guard-house of Jinghiz-tai, they were at 
 once sent forward under an escort to Kobdo, the 
 chief town of the border province of the same 
 name. Here they were presented to the governor, 
 who interrogated them, and gave orders to place 
 them all together in some building, a kind of 
 barrack, or more probably gaol, where they were 
 kept some time under strict surveillance, receiving 
 however, enough to live upon. At length they 
 were vSet at liberty, and informed that a message 
 had been received from Peking, to say that the 
 Emperor of China would not receive them among 
 his subjects, but in consideration of their poverty 
 ordered that a supply of food should be given them 
 for the road, and that they should be sent to the 
 place whence they had come. They were accord- 
 ingly taken back in the same way, and by the same 
 route. Riding horses were given them, and means 
 of subsistence. They were delighted at receiving 
 their liberty again, for the frequent executions 
 they had witnessed during their captivity, even for 
 the most trivial offences, gave them a bad impres- 
 sion of the Chinese people and Government. 
 
 After their return, although the Chinese frontier 
 officials protected them whenever they had recourse 
 to their assistance, both against their own fellows 
 as well as the neighbouring Kirghiz, yet this did 
 not put a stop to internal dissensions, and the 
 fear of being caught and punished was a constant 
 
NEGOTIATIONS FOE A SUEEENDEE. 219 
 
 source of uneasiness to them. These fears were 
 not groundless, for the Russian Government had 
 from time to time taken measures against the 
 KamenshiM. Cossack patrols had been sent into 
 the mountains from the nearest fortresses, and 
 though these had hitherto confined their operations 
 to setting fire to some dwellings, and surprising and 
 making prisoners of a few stray members of the 
 community, yet the Kamenshiki lived in constant 
 dread of pursuit, and the visits of parties of miners 
 kept them continually on the qui-vive, and at 
 length induced them to surrender themselves to 
 the Government. At a meeting held in 1788 it 
 was proposed to select one of their body as a 
 deputy, and authorize him to ask pardon of the 
 Government, and permission to remain in their 
 present place of abode on payment of tribute or 
 some tax. This resolution, however, was not then 
 carried, in consequence of the opposition of some 
 of the elders or " best men," who feared being com- 
 pelled to renounce their rock, and return to their 
 former mode of life. 
 
 When mining operations were begun in the dis- 
 trict of Bukhtarma, oflBcials were sent with detach- 
 ments of soldiers and labourers to explore and 
 work the new mines. In 1790 the mining-over- 
 seer, Priyesjefi", and his assistant, left Fort Ust- 
 Kamennogorsk with twenty -four workmen and an 
 escort of Cossacks. In the autumn, after the pre- 
 liminary works had been completed, and most of 
 
220 THE STAEOVEETSI. 
 
 the escort had returned to the fortress, eleven 
 armed men appeared one night at the station, who, 
 on being challenged by the sentry, announced that 
 they were hunters, and had come to see the over- 
 seer. Upon Priyesjeflf coming out to them, one of 
 their number, Ivan Buikoff, a runaway dragoon, 
 speaking on behalf of himself and his comrades, 
 said that he and three hundred able-bodied and 
 armed companions were ready to give in their sub- 
 mission to the Government, and perform any ser- 
 vice required of them. 
 
 Priy^sjeff immediately communicated this to the 
 authorities of the mining department, who referred 
 it to the Empress Catherine II. The allegiance 
 of the Kamenshiki was accepted, and the Imperial 
 answer given in an ukaz dated the 15th Septem- 
 ber, 1791, and addressed to General Peel, Governor 
 of Siberia. 
 
 According to information furnished at that time 
 to those in power, the Kamenshiki numbered three 
 hundred and eighteen, of whom two hundred and 
 eighteen were men, and sixty-eight women ; that 
 they were in reality more numerous was admitted 
 by their own delegates, who said that the absence 
 of many on hunting and fishing expeditions ren- 
 dered the return incomplete. They occupied thirty 
 settlements, and comprised chiefly peasants, foot- 
 soldiers, dragoons, and operatives, Cossacks of the 
 line, and a few domestic serfs, refugees from the 
 hermitages and caves of the Starovertsi in the 
 
THEIR PARDON AND REFORMED HABITS. 221 
 
 governments of European Russia, only four out of 
 the whole number were escaped convicts. 
 
 The Imperial pardon put an end to all disorder 
 among the Kamenshiki, and established order and 
 harmony : they abandoned their terrible cliffs and 
 ravines, silent witnesses of the crimes and irregu- 
 larities of their past lives, and removed to localities 
 offering every possible advantage for tillage, cattle- 
 breeding, and industrial pursuits. In nearly every 
 settlement they built houses of prayer, but no 
 church, as the inhabitants were Starovertsi, or 
 Old Believers. A few of the elders and book-men, 
 chosen from their midst, fulfilled all sacred duties, 
 and conducted the service, recourse being had to 
 the fortress only for the celebration of weddings. 
 But in the course of time this was all changed, 
 many of the inhabitants, fearing lest they should 
 be included in the number of those liable to com- 
 pulsory labour in the works, left of their own accord 
 for other villages, crown peasants took their places, 
 and the very names of the settlements were altered. 
 
 Fifteen years ago the descendants of the Kamen- 
 shiki inhabited besides the district of Bukhtarma, 
 the village of Uimon, on the banks of the Katuna, 
 where they formed a separate colony consisting of 
 a hundred and twenty-nine men, and a hundred 
 and thirty-five women. 
 
 About that time (1863) they were visited by 
 M. Printz,^ who found them a thriving people; 
 
 ^ From whose article in the Zapisky of the Russian Geogra- 
 
222 THE STAROVERTSI. 
 
 they tilled the soil, kept bees, reared cattle, and 
 hunted wild animals, some were wealthy, and 
 owned five hundred horses, fifty or seventy head 
 of cattle, and a couple of hundred sheep, which 
 they kept exclusively for their own use. They 
 hunted in the Bukhtarminsk district, and on the 
 Upper Katuna, where the best sables are procured. 
 In former years the fur industry was more pro- 
 ductive throughout the Altai than it is now, and 
 many more of the inhabitants of Uimon engaged 
 in it. As the population increased in the hilly 
 districts, the number of wild animals rapidly 
 diminished, and obliged many of the hunters to 
 seek other means of livelihood. 
 
 From Uimon M. Printz crossed the Katuna, and 
 ascending its left bank, reached the village of 
 Koksa, standing on the river of that name, and 
 inhabited exclusively by native Siberians,' who 
 were settled here in 1829 at their own request. 
 They had become thoroughly Eussianized, and 
 retained scarcely any trace of their original type ; 
 their style of living is somewhat inferior to the 
 peasants of Uimon, of whom they spoke in dis- 
 paraging terms, characterizing them and their 
 Bukhtarminsk brethren as vagrants or varnaks.* 
 
 phieal Society we have derived these particulars of the 
 Kamenshiki. 
 
 ' The population of Siberia before the Russians came there, 
 consisted principally of Yakutes, Ostiaks, and Samoyedes. 
 
 ' Varnak is a common expression in Siberia, applied to exiles 
 and convicts. The word is derived from the Tartar varanmnk, 
 
PEINTZ CROSSES HOLSUN RANGE. 223 
 
 Between the Koksa, wliich flows into the Katuna, 
 and the Bukhtarma, which joins the Irtysh, lies 
 theHolsun range forming part of the Altai system, 
 from which it is separated on the east by the 
 valley of the Katuna, whilst on the west it merges 
 in the lofty Koksun and Turgussun Bielki^ (snowy 
 or white) mountains. Its height is between 5800 
 and 7200 feet, and its loftiest peaks form a kind of 
 table-land, such as are frequently met with in the 
 Altai. The road across the Holsun range from 
 the valley of the Koksa to that of the Bukhtarma 
 is very little known, and M. Printjz had consider- 
 able difficulty in finding a guide able to show him 
 the way, but at last one was found and a start 
 made. From the bank of the Koksa the road 
 leads directly to the Katuna, and up this river for 
 ten miles ; a ridge of rocks has then to be crossed 
 before the road enters the meadows by the side of 
 the Katuna, which it leaves shortly before the 
 latter is joined by the AyuUa, ascending the last- 
 mentioned river for a couple of miles to its con- 
 fluence with the Kaitanak. This region is auri- 
 ferous, and M. Printz found a party of gold- 
 seekers prospecting the locality, but gold at that 
 time had not been discovered. From the head 
 waters of the Kaitanak he crossed a lofty pass to 
 
 signifying the passive state of an individual, as when he makes 
 a compulsory journey. 
 
 ^ For explanation of the terra " bielok," or"bielki," as applied 
 to mountains in Siberia, see post, p. 230. 
 
224 THE STAROVEETSI. 
 
 the sources of the Uimonsky-Biriuksa, which flows 
 out of a small lake, and entered a region over- 
 grown with birch underwood, the sides of the 
 surrounding mountains being adorned with 
 cedars and firs. This is a very difficult part 
 of the journey, a narrow path . encumbered 
 with fallen trees leads through the forest to the 
 summit of the Kaitanak, and it was late at 
 night before the party reached the sources of the 
 Biriuksa. 
 
 On these expeditions it is usual for the guides to 
 choose the most cheerful spots for the encamp- 
 ment, whence the traveller may enjoy extensive 
 and delightful views, but here there was no choice, 
 a dense forest shut them in on every side, and no 
 distant views were possible ; the most that could 
 be done was to find an open space near some 
 stream, pitch the tent here, tether the horses, and 
 prepare tea and supper; the latter consisted of 
 pieces of mutton roasted on a spit, and kasha or 
 porridge made of millet. After having refreshed 
 themselves, they sat awhile round the dying embers, 
 calculating the distance they had come, and how 
 far they had still to go. The Cossack who accom- 
 panied M. Printz whiled away the time in teaching 
 Russsian to the Kalmuks of the party, making 
 them repeat after him different words, till at their 
 absurd pronunciation and mistakes the laughter 
 was loud and long, and the woods resounded with 
 the general merriment. The guide, who had from 
 
ADVENTOEES WITH BEAES. 225 
 
 boyhood gone hunting in the taiga,^ recounted 
 many of his adventures ; he said it was not unusual 
 to encounter bears, and that he was once travelling 
 with the ispravnik' from Bukhtarma to Koksa, 
 when suddenly he saw one close by. This was 
 his first experience of these animals, and his in- 
 clination to kill it was so strong, that, forgetting 
 he was unarmed, he threw himself on the bear 
 with nothing but a whip. Fortunately another 
 peasant had observed the encounter, and levelling 
 his rifle as the bear was on the point of charging, 
 he fired and killed it. The pluck of the peasants 
 of these mountain villages is remarkable, the 
 Kamenshiki in particular seem not to know what 
 fear is.* It is not unusual to find men among 
 them who have engaged bears single-handed, and 
 an old man was pointed out to M. Printz who had 
 killed his eighty bears in single fight. The next 
 day they had to cross the last and loftiest of the 
 passes over the Holsun range. Descending the 
 Uimon Biriuksa to its junction with the Tiha 
 (slow) Biriuksa, they began the ascent of the 
 
 ° "Taiga" is another Siberian expression. In Northern 
 Siberia it refers to the belt of uninhabited forest bordering on 
 the moss bogs which extend to the glacial ocean. In the Altai 
 it means the mountains where squirrels, and other animals hunted 
 for the sake of their fir, abound. 
 
 ' The Ispravnik is the police-officer of the district. 
 
 ' This fearlessness is a characteristic of the Starovertsi. In 
 the north of European Russia I have known peasants, armed 
 only with an axe, attack and kill these formidable foes. 
 
226 THE STABOVEETSI. 
 
 latter. Vegetation gradually ceased as they 
 advanced, first the cedars disappeared, then the 
 pine forests, dwarf ash and birch only remaining, 
 while the summit itself was quite bare. The toil- 
 some ascent lasted more than a day ; they were 
 amply rewarded, however, by the grandeur of the 
 view which unrolled itself before them. From 
 this, the most elevated part of the Holsun, the 
 whole mountain range could be seen, dividing the 
 waters of the two great rivers, the Obi and the 
 Irtysh. On the south a precipitous descent led to 
 the valley of the Bukhtarma, whilst to the north 
 the ground fell in terraces to the valleys of the 
 Koksa and Katuna. Near the sources of the 
 latter rose majestically the Katuna pillars stand- 
 ing in sharp outline against the pale blue of the 
 sky, while beyond the Bukhtarma glittered the 
 snowy belts of the Navjm Bielki mountains. 
 
 The descent grew steeper and more steep as 
 they approached the Ohernovoi or black water. 
 Fortunately the path was dry, and the weather 
 fine ; had it been rainy, the difficulties would have 
 been greatly augmented, for the natives say that 
 hardly any horse will breast the ascent if it be 
 slippery. 
 
 After resting a few hours on the banks of the 
 Ohernovoi, they pursued their way down through 
 underwood denser than anytliing one can imagine. 
 Branches of various kinds of trees and bushes 
 completely blocked the road in places, rendering 
 
LUXURIANT VEGETATION. 227 
 
 it necessary to force a way through them, pro- 
 tecting the face from their blows as they re- 
 bounded. The grass was higher than a horse, 
 and so thick that it was difl&cult to ride through. 
 Canes and Heracleum,^ especially the former, were 
 seen half as high agaia as a man on horseback. 
 In a word, the southern slopes of the Holsun, 
 well sheltered from the north, teem with luxuriant 
 vegetation, contrasting in a marked degree with 
 those on the north. Amongst bushes may be men- 
 tioned the guelder rose and common elder, never 
 seen on the northern side, wild currant and rasp- 
 berry in profusion; and amongst flowers, pinks 
 and hollyhocks. The very colour and density of 
 the verdure betoken a different nature, whilst 
 countless swarms of butterflies fill the air. 
 
 The road or pathway descends by the Cher- 
 novoi to its confluence with the Bukhtarma, but 
 to avoid the precipitous cliffs which press upon 
 the river, it is necessary to ford it twenty times, a 
 matter of no little difl&culty near its mouth, owing 
 
 " Probably Heraclewm Sibiricum, about which Gmelin informs 
 us that the inhabitants of Kamchatka, about the beginning of 
 July, collect the foot-stalks of the radical leaves, and after peel- 
 ing off the rind, which is very acrid, dry them separately in the 
 sun, and then, tying them in bundles, lay them up carefully in 
 the shade in bags ; in this state they are covered with a yellow 
 efflorescence, tasting like liquorice ; this being shaken off, is 
 eaten as a great delicacy. From the stalks thus prepared and 
 fermented witli bilberries, the Russians distil an ardent spirit, 
 which Gmelin says is more agreeable to the taste than spirits 
 made from corn. (Loudon's Plants.) 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 THE STAROVBETSI. 
 
 to the deptli of water, now and then above the 
 saddle-girths, and the rapid stream. Vegetation 
 here is as rank as it is on the Upper Ohernovoi. 
 
 Along this and most of the smaller affluents of 
 the Bukhtarma are stationed apiaries, at one of 
 which M. Printz took a guide as far as the Bukh- 
 tarma, who told him that the bee-culture had 
 greatly fallen off in recent years, owing to a 
 mortality among the bees in 1859 and 1860, when 
 he had lost most of his, having only thirty hives 
 left out of 300. 
 
 The change from the wild, uninhabited, moun- 
 tainous country, through which M. Printz and his 
 party had been wandering for more than a month, 
 to the highly cultivated fields on the Bukhtarma, 
 where the rye grew as high as a man, and scented 
 the air with its bloom, was most welcome to 
 them. 
 
 The Bukhtarma here flows in a wide and 
 picturesque valley, its stream is about 360 feet 
 wide, and has numerous islands in it. On the 
 left the mountains approach close to the water's 
 edge, whilst on the right, with the exception of a 
 few places, they are some distance off, the interval 
 being filled in with corn-fields and meadow-land. 
 These mountains are almost treeless, but they are 
 clothed with a short grass, and they look far more 
 attractive than the slopes on the other side of the 
 Holsun range. 
 
 Descending the Bukhtarma, the first settlement 
 
SETTLEMENTS ON THE BUK.HTARMA. 229 
 
 readied is Sennoi, on its right bank, eight miles 
 from the mouth of the Chernovoi, with a popula- 
 tion of 177 men and 192 women, a place of some 
 importance. It has a church, hardly ever at- 
 tended, a priest of the orthodox faith, whose 
 duties are almost exclusively limited to performing 
 the marriage service,' a Government inspector, 
 who is stationed here to look after the restless 
 inhabitants of this and the neighbouring villages, 
 and a mayor, whose functions apparently consist 
 in doing the honours of the place to the few casual 
 visitors who make their way into this remote part 
 of the world. 
 
 To this functionary M. Printz had recourse to 
 supply him with carts to take him and his baggage 
 to the next village. But after a diligent search 
 had been instituted, only one vehicle fit for use 
 could be found in the whole place, the fact being 
 
 ' The Starovertsi of Bukhtarminsk belong to the old-fashioned 
 dissenters of the priestless sect, and have therefore no priests of 
 their own. In 1859 a clergyman was appointed to the district, 
 and the foundations of a church laid, which was consecrated in 
 1862. But the natives rarely enter it, and the congregation 
 on Christmas Day does not exceed twenty persons, including 
 the family of the Government inspector. On ordinary Church 
 festivals the clergyman has the church to himself. Nothing but 
 necessity drives them to the orthodox faith before marriage, 
 when they are obliged to sign a written engagement never to 
 return to the " raskol." This, however, they do not observe, 
 for they say that it was obtained by compulsion, and that its 
 object was to make the marriage tie more binding. They never 
 bring their children to be baptized, or fulfil any of the obser- 
 vances of the orthodox religion. 
 
230 THE STAROVERTSI. 
 
 that people tere always ride, and make use of 
 pack-horses as a means of transport. 
 
 From the village of Sennoi it is ten miles to 
 Verkh Narymsk or Ognevoi, beyond which the 
 road is not worn for carts, and the steep ascents 
 make riding the best mode of travelling. Between 
 the last-mentioned village and Korobikha (eight 
 miles), a high range has to be crossed, dividing 
 the right tributaries of the Narym from the leffc 
 aflSuents of the Bukhtarma. The pass is called 
 " Bielok," a name applied by the natives to aU the 
 high mountains, not that they are perpetually 
 snow- covered, but because the snow appears earlier 
 and lies later on them than elsewhere. 
 
 From Korobikha the road follows the right bank 
 of the Bukhtarma to Petcheh, or Upper Bukh- 
 tarminsk, (ten mUes), where the valley again widens 
 out and is very beautiful, the village nestling in a 
 hollow, at the foot of some terraced mountains. 
 
 On the east lie the Listviajny, or Larch moun- 
 tains, forming the southern boundary of the 
 Holsun range. 
 
 Through this range the Bielaya and Fikalka 
 wind their courses. The first takes its rise in the 
 Maral or deers' lake, high up in the mountains, and 
 swelled by numerous feeders, flows with a good 
 stream past the village of the same name, joining 
 the Bukhtarma six miles from the village of 
 Verkhny Bukhtarminsk ; the Fikalka also flows 
 past a village of that name, ten miles beyond 
 
PRESENT ABODES OJ? KAMENSHIKI. 231 
 
 Bielaya, 4000 feet above sea-level. This is the 
 furthermost Russian village in the direction of the 
 Chinese frontier. 
 
 The volost or district of Bukhtarma, according 
 to a recent return, has a population of 750 women 
 and 668 men (304 of whom are able-bodied work- 
 men), inhabiting eight villages, four of which are 
 on the Bukhtarma itself. The land is very pro- 
 ductive, and is reckoned the best in the Government 
 of Tomsk, especially round the settlements of the 
 Kamenshiki. 
 
 Though the inhabitants stUl speak of their 
 country as " the Rock," the scenery in which their 
 present abodes are situated is far from rocky, and 
 very different from the cliffs and recesses where 
 their ancestors hid. When these latter received 
 the Imperial amnesty, and abandoned their inac- 
 cessible retreats, they settled in the open where 
 the villages now stand, and where they found every 
 requisite for a sedentary hfe. An inexhaustibly 
 rich soil, a warm climate, fuel and water in abun- 
 dance, and pasturage for their cattle. All kinds 
 of corn ripen here,' and buckwheat is indigenous, 
 though in quality not inferior to the cultivated 
 grain. Vegetables are also successfully grown. 
 
 Bukhtarma is noted for the quantity and quality 
 of its honey. Before the great mortality in 1860 
 
 ' Even at Fikalka, notwithstanding its height, owing to its 
 sheltered position, and the warm winds from the Kirghiz 
 steppes on the south. 
 
232 THE STAEOVEETSI. 
 
 destroyed such numbers of bees, it was not unusual 
 to find proprietors of a thousand hives, and it was 
 in those days considered a more profitable invest- 
 ment than tillage. But this is not the case now, 
 and many who kept bees have taken to agricul- 
 ture. There is no regular market for the disposal 
 of this honey, but merchants from Omsk annually 
 visit Sennoi towards the 15th August, or Feast of 
 the Assumption, almost expressly to buy that and 
 the beeswax, which is collected by that time, from 
 the other villages. About the beginning of Sep- 
 tember, rafts laden with these products are floated 
 down the Bukhtarma and Irtysh to Omsk. 
 
 The heat in summer in the valley of the Bukh- 
 tarma is usually sultry, and all fruits ripen early ; 
 melons and water-melons grow out of doors, and 
 strawberries, currants, raspberries, gooseberries, 
 and mountain ash are plentiful. The most cha- 
 racteristic of the flowers are the willow herb 
 (Epilobium angustifoUum), wormwood (^Artemisia 
 ahsintJiium), clematis {G. integrifoUa), lily (Lilium 
 martagon), globe-flower {Trollius Asiaticus), and 
 cow-parsnip (Heradeum barbatum). The most 
 conspicuous bushes are the honeysuckle {Lonicera 
 tartarica), wild jasmine {Dajphne altaica), and 
 dwarf almond {Amygdalus nana). But the fa- 
 vourite occupation of the inhabitants of Bukhtarma, 
 and one for which they appear to have a natural 
 taste, is trapping wild animals. For this purpose 
 they build huts high up on the smaller afl&uents 
 
SNABING THE SABLE. 233 
 
 of the Bukhtarma and Upper Katuna, where they 
 live in autumn and part of winter for several 
 consecutive weeks. They are so devoted to this 
 pursuit that they willingly sacrifice the comforts 
 of home life for the privations and hardships 
 incident to that of a trapper. In summer they 
 hunt deer and wild goats, hiring Kirghiz labourers 
 to attend to their farms and pasture their herds, 
 during their absence from home. 
 
 The best fur districts, particularly for sables, 
 are on the Upper Katuna and Bukhtarma and 
 their tributaries. These animals are caught in 
 traps or nets, and dogs are specially trained to 
 kill them, that the fur may be injured as little as 
 possible ; for this reason guns are dispensed with 
 except where absolutely necessary. The sable 
 frequents the stony slopes of wooded mountains, 
 generally near the summits, descending at night to 
 seek its prey, and not returning to its nest before 
 morning. The method of snaring it is somewhat 
 peculiar, and may be described as follows : — The 
 trappers pass the night at the foot of the moun- 
 tain where they expect to find sable, and almost 
 before daybreak commence the ascent, looking 
 everywhere for its tracks. As soon as these are 
 discovered the dogs are let loose. When the men 
 catch sight of the animal they endeavour to pre- 
 vent its running up hill, for if it once get safely 
 back to its burrow, no power on earth can dislodge 
 it. They try and turn it therefore if possible 
 
234 THE STAEOVBETSI. 
 
 towards a neiglibouring hill ; but if in the meau- 
 while the dogs have tree'd it, they are obliged to 
 shoot it with the gun. More often, however, it 
 takes refuge on an exposed hill-side, which the 
 trappers immediately surround with their nets, 
 propping these up on sticks, and ballasting the 
 bottom with stones. The baffled animal now tries 
 to escape observation by crouching underneath 
 the net, whereupon its pursuers light a fire and 
 smoke it out. It then throws itself against the 
 top of the net, which it drags down from its 
 slender supports, and entangles itself in the 
 meshes. Fifteen men usually club together for 
 this branch of industry, and have one general net 
 about a thousand feet long, and standing four feet 
 high from the ground. It is one of the most 
 difficult as it is the most profitable of industries, 
 every sable skin being worth on an average 
 fifteen rubles. They hunt the fox and wolf in 
 autumn on horseback with dogs. Another source 
 of gain to the inhabitants is keeping tame deer, 
 which are caught young and brought up by 
 hand. By the third year the horns are a good 
 size, and are then cut ofi", and sent to China for 
 sale. The inhabitants of Bukhtarminsk, who 
 sprang from forefathers belonging to no particular 
 class in society, and coming from places Avidely 
 apart, have no distinctive type. But the freedom 
 of their existence, the nature of their occupations, 
 and of the region they inhabit, and above all their 
 inborn dispositions, impart to many a peculiarly 
 
VAGABOND HABITS. 235 
 
 daring and expressive cast of features. Their 
 love of a vagabond life and a-dventure, inherited 
 from the early settlers, is preserved down to the 
 present day. As their ancestors came to seek the 
 " Bielovodiye," so are they ever in search of it 
 now. In 1865 a party of sixty men and women 
 crossed the Chinese frontier bound for the pro- 
 mised land, of which their traditions spoke ; but 
 after two years of fruitless wanderings on the 
 confines of Russia and China, during which they 
 underwent every imaginable hardship and suffer- 
 ing, they almost all returned, some by themselves, 
 others escorted by Chinese. They had not hesi- 
 tated to sacrifice all their belongings, and some 
 were well ofi", for the sake of their religious con- 
 victions, and to satisfy their longing for freedom, 
 which, handed down from father to son, is ever 
 kept alive among them, and is so strongly 
 implanted in their nature that no loss or failure 
 can eradicate it. Not long ago, as we have seen 
 (supra, p. 77), a party of them, doubtless impelled 
 by the same restless cravings after their traditional 
 " white waters," or " white mountains," ^ visited 
 Lob-nor. Yet if we consider the solitary lives most 
 of these people lead — in winter in the great silent 
 forests for weeks and months together, engaged in 
 the all-absorbing chase, in summer by their apiaries 
 
 " Bielovodiye, country of white waters (from liely, white, 
 and voda, water). Bielogoriye, i. e. white mountain {gora, 
 mountain), is another name applied by Starovertsi to their 
 " promised land." 
 
236 THi! STAEOVEETSI. 
 
 on the banks of streams, we cannot be surprised 
 that their thoughts should take a serious turn, 
 and that they should look to something better 
 than to become units in the great empire from which 
 they have so often tried to sever themselves. 
 
 As the tide of Eussian civilization slowly but 
 surely advances, threatening to swallow them up 
 in their retreats, and compelling them to move 
 farther and farther away in search of that 
 unknown land, we can imagine them saying in 
 the words of the PhocEeans of Horace, — 
 
 iVos manet oceanus circumvagus : arva, heata 
 JPetamus arva, divites et insulas. 
 
 The story we have endeavoured briefly to sketch 
 of the Starovertsi of Siberia finds its reflex on the 
 other side of the Atlantic. There, too, we find 
 outlawed communities, such as the Mormons, the 
 Shakers, and others, of whom Mr. Hepworth 
 Dixon gave us a description some years ago in his 
 " New America," choosing to dwell in out-of-the- 
 way nooks and corners of the States, distinguished 
 by many qualities which would fit them for citizen- 
 ship, yet preferring to cut themselves ofi" from 
 society in order that they may practise their 
 religious or irreligious rites far from the scoflBng 
 eyes of their fellow-men. 
 
 The analogy holds good in many points, in others 
 again it will not apply. But it is siugular that in 
 name at all events there should be some similarity 
 between the Mormons of the Rocky Mountains and 
 the poor Kamenshiki or People of the Eock. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Abdallah village, 100, seq., 115. 
 
 Abramoff, General, 180. 
 
 Aehliam, Akoond, 71. 
 
 Afrasyab, 1. 
 
 Airilgan ferry, 74, 80, 97. 
 
 Aitaktin-Karakum, 176. 
 
 Ak-chek, Mount, 196. 
 
 Akhtarma, 66, 71, 146,163. 
 
 Aksu, townof, E. Turkestan, 11, 16, 19, seq., 178. 
 
 Aksu, river, of Balkash basin, 184. 
 
 Ala-kul, lake, 176, 187-201. 
 
 , theory concerning, 187. 
 
 , its name, 188. 
 
 , height, 190 ; islands, 193. 
 
 , climate, 198 ; inhabitants, 200, seq. 
 
 Ala-shan, 55, 58. 
 
 Ala-tau mountains, trans-Ili, 179, 181 ; Semireohinsk, 179, 188, 
 
 196, 199, 201. 
 Almalik, 5, seq., 178. 
 Altai mountains, 176, 207, 222, seq. 
 Altyn Immel, 200. 
 Altyn-tagh range, 79, seq., 100 ; remarks on, 144 seq. ; 147, 
 
 149, 156. 
 Altyshahr, 12. 
 
238 INDEX. 
 
 Amursana, 200. 
 
 Apiaries, 228. 
 
 Aral-tiube, 193, 199. 
 
 Arassan warm springs, 197. 
 
 Arcliangel, Starovertsi in, 205. 
 
 Ardabil, see Aksu. 
 
 Arslan khans, 4. 
 
 Artush, 19. 
 
 Aryan race, 106. 
 
 Asclepias, 69, seg^., 108. 
 
 Assanoff, expedition of, 173. 
 
 Aulieta, Cape, 184. 
 
 Ayaguz, river and town, 172, seq., 175, 181, 1S4, seq. 
 
 Ayulla, R., 223. 
 
 B. 
 
 Babkoi-f, General, 172, 201. 
 
 Badaulat, see Yakub Beg. 
 
 Bagarash, lake, 23, 43, 50, 54, 142. 
 
 Baga-Tulduz-gol, 42, seq., 130. 
 
 Bai, 56. 
 
 Baigazi-tiube, 193. 
 
 Balgantai, E., 47, 128. 
 
 Balkash, lake, 34, 169—186 ; its name, 170. 
 
 , explorers, 173, 175, 183; height, 176, 190. 
 
 , rivers, 177, seq. ; navigability, 185. 
 
 Balkatsi-nor, see Kyzyl-tuz. 
 
 Barkul, 194. 
 
 Barlyk mountains, 188, 196, 199, 201. 
 
 Barnaoul works, 207. 
 
 Bayandai, 34. 
 
 Beaver-hunting, 213. 
 
 Beer, Brigadier-General, 207. 
 
 Beg Kuli Beg, 11. 
 
 Bellew, Dr., 10, 29, seq., 41. 
 
 Bielaya E., 230. 
 
 Bielki, or Snowy Mountains, 223, 22G, 230. 
 
INDEX. 239 
 
 Bielovodiye, 77, 208, sey., 235. 
 
 Biriuksa E., 224, seq^. 
 
 Blanford, the naturalist, 62, 168. 
 
 Bostang-nor, see Bagarash. 
 
 Botany, notices of, 36, seg., 40, 47, 59, 83, 101, 130, 227, 232. 
 
 Buddhistic remains, 182. 
 
 Buddhist monks, 151. 
 
 pilgrims, 150, seg". 
 
 Bugur, 56. 
 
 Bukholz, Ivan, 18. 
 
 Bukhtarma R., 208, 210, 212, 214, 223, 226, 228, 230, 232, 
 
 seq. 
 Bukhtarminsk district, 207, 219, 222, 231. 
 Bulun-tohoi, 194. 
 
 Camels, wild, 86, 88—97 ; their characteristics, 90 ; habits, 91, 
 seq. ; mode of hunting, 92 ; their distinguishing marks, 
 93, seq. 
 
 Catherine II., of Russia, 220, 
 
 Chadji R., 181. 
 
 Chaglyk spring, 86, 89. 
 
 Chalish, remains of, 23. 
 
 Chamen-tagh mountains, 83, 85. 
 
 Chang-Kien, Chinese General, 136, 144, 149. 
 
 Charchan, or Cherehen, 2i, 28, 77, 135, 155, 157. 
 
 Chargalyk, 62, 75, seq., 80, 110. 
 
 Chaukkar, Cape, 172, 184. 
 
 Chepe-Noyan, Jinghiz Khan's General, 5. 
 
 Cherchen-daria, 58, 76, 88, 98, 149, 155. 
 
 Chernovoi R., 226, seq. 
 
 Ciarcian, see Charchan. 
 
 Chimpanzi, 34. 
 
 Chinese cartography, br.jSeq., 146, seq., 161. 
 
 Chinese literature, vi., 137, 142, 152, seq. 
 
 Chon-daria, see Tarim. 
 
 Chon-Kul, see Kara-Koshun. 
 
240 INDEX. 
 
 Chu E., 172. 
 
 Chubar-agatch, 180. 
 
 Chuguchak, 9, 194, seq., 200. 
 
 Chugutsa, 200. 
 
 Climate, remarks on, 75, 124, 12G, 129, 155. 
 
 Cossacks, 32, 36, seq., 119, 180, 182, seq., 185, 224. 
 
 Cuckoo's tears, 130. 
 
 D. 
 
 Dalan-dabaghan pass, 141. 
 
 D'AnviUe, 136, 137. 
 
 Darwin, 112 
 
 De Guignes' history, 136, 150. 
 
 Demidoff's mines, 207. 
 
 Dixon, Hepworti, 236. 
 
 Djagansai K., 81, 106. 
 
 Djety-shahr, 128. 
 
 D'Ohsson, 5. 
 
 Duck-shooting, 120, seq. 
 
 Du Halde, 136. 
 
 Duncan's Eussia, 78. 
 
 Dungans, 34, 44 ; revolt of, 79, 86, 141. 
 
 Dzungaria, 4, 7, seq., 171, seq.; Khans of, 181. 
 
 Dzungars, 9, 170. 
 
 E. 
 
 Ehbi or Yubi wind, 198, seq. 
 
 Eklon, Colonel Prejevalsky's companion, 32, 44, 79. 
 
 Eleuths, 178. 
 
 Elizabeth, Empress, 207. 
 
 EmU or Imil E,, 197, 201. 
 
 Fa-hian, the Buddhist pilgrim, 150. 
 Feodoroff, observations of, 175, seq. 
 Fikalka village and river, 217, 230. 
 
INDEX. 241 
 
 Fish in Balkash, 173. 
 
 in Tarim, 64. 
 
 in Lake Lob, 101. 
 
 in Kunges E., 36 ; in Baga-Yulduz-gol, 43. 
 
 in Kaidu B,., 49 ; in Lake Bagarasli, 50. 
 
 rishing on Tarim, 102 ; on Lake Lob, 113. 
 Forsyth, Sir Douglas, expedition of, 64. 
 
 a. 
 
 Ga&aein, Peince, 17, 171. 
 Qas-shari, 77. 
 Gast, 165. 
 Gmelin, 227. 
 Gobi, upheaval of, 27. 
 GolubiefF, General, 190, 201. 
 Gortchakoff, Prince, 173. 
 GrigoriefF, M., 17, 206. 
 Gumish Akma, 22, seq. 
 Gnshluk Khan, 4, sej. 
 Gwadar, 62. 
 
 H. 
 
 Habshil-dabaghan pass, 141. 
 
 Habtsagai-gol, 47, 141. 
 
 Hami, 151, 152. 
 
 Han Dynasty, 136, 143, 144, 150, 154. 
 
 Hasford, General, 177. 
 
 Hayward, 15, 138. 
 
 Henderson, Dr., 15, 59, 168. 
 
 Seraclewm Sibiricum, 227. 
 
 Himalayas, 138. 
 
 Himly, Herr Carl, 137, 140. 
 
 Hiongnu or Huns, 2, 144, 150. 
 
 Hoang-ho, sources of, 26, 136, seq. 
 
 Ho-kiu-ping, Chinese General, 14i. 
 
 Holsun mountains, 210, 223, 226. 
 
 Horeti-gol, 129. 
 
242 INDEX. 
 
 Howorth's history of the Mongols, 17, seg^. 
 Humboldt, Alexander von, 27, 137, 170, 176, 193. 
 Hume, the Naturalist, 122, 168. 
 Hwei-sung, the Samanean pilgrim, 151. 
 Hwen-thsang, the Buddhist pilgrim, 151, 156, 177. 
 Hyacinthe, Pere, 153. 
 
 I and J. 
 
 Ibn Battjta, referred to, 6. 
 
 Ilchi, see Khoten. 
 
 Hi R, 2, 5, 28,38, 86, 172, 174, 176, 177, seq., 186, 189,200. 
 
 Ill city, see Kulja. 
 
 Imel R., 191, seq. 
 
 Inchikeh-daria, 54, 71, 148, 161, seq. 
 
 Irkutsk, 215. 
 
 Irtysh E., 17, 171, 172, 212, 214. 
 
 Irtysh Black R., 194, 213, 226, 232. 
 
 Issyk-kul, 187, 189. 
 
 Itineraries, discrepancy of, 156. , 
 
 Jade, Turkish and Mongol name for, 147. 
 
 Jelanash-kul, 188, 192. 
 
 Jesuits, surveys of, 136, 137, 139, 170. 
 
 Jinghiz Khan, 4, 5. 
 
 Jinghiz-tai, 217. 
 
 Johnson, the traveller, 138, 155, seq. 
 
 Julien Stanislaus, referred to, 79, 151. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kaidu R, 22, 43, 47, seq., 128, 141, seq. 
 
 Kaitanak E., 223. 
 
 Kalghirmnaii-hmtai, 142. 
 
 Kalmuks, 9, 28, 34, 157, 172, 199, 200, 207. 
 
 Kalym or purchase-money, 112. 
 
 Kan-chau-fu, 151. 
 
 Kanghi, Chinese Emperor, 152. 
 
 Kamchatka, 227. 
 
INDEX. 243 
 
 KamensMlci, 207 — 236 ; their name, 209 ; mountain homes, 
 210 ; hunting and fishing, 210, seq. ; patriarchal lives, 
 215; crimes and punishments, 216; intercourse with 
 Chinese, 217, seq. ; surrender to government, 219 ; 
 courage, 225. 
 
 Kara-huran, Lake, 56, 58, 62, 74, 97, seq., 145, 149, 155, 164. 
 
 Kara-kitai, empire of, 4. 
 
 Kara-kodsho, 153. 
 
 Karakorum E., 3, 6. 
 
 Kara-boshun, 23, 64, 106, 145, 147, 154, 164. 
 
 Kara-kul, 71, 153, 154. 
 
 Kara kultsi, 64, 154. 
 
 Kara-kurchin, .«ee Kara-koshun. 
 
 Kara-kurchintsi, nee Lob-nortsi. 
 
 Kara-moto, 48, 49. 
 
 Karashahr, 22, 23, 50, 79, 136, 142, 146. 
 
 Kara-tal E., 181 seq., 184. 
 
 Kara-ussu E., 178. 
 
 Kash E., 34. 
 
 Kashgar, 2, 5, 9, 28, 49, 79. 
 
 Katak, ruins of, 2, 24. 
 
 Katuna E., 210, 221, 223, 226. 
 
 Kaufmann, General, 53. 
 
 Kaulbars, Baron, 177. 
 
 Kem, 206. 
 
 Keria or Kiria, 58, 81, 139, 155. 
 
 Khan-khura-tagh volcano, 21. 
 
 Khas-omo or Khas lake, 147, 149, 150, 154. 
 
 Khongor mountains, 179. 
 
 Khoten, city of, 1, 16 ; gold-fields, 17 ; 28, 75, 81, 106, 118, 
 135, 136, 138, seq., 152, 155, 156, seq. 
 
 Zhoten E., 24, 27. 
 
 Kiang, province of Tibet, 144, 150. 
 
 Kien-long, Emperor, 8, 136, seq., 149, 152, 153, 179, 200. 
 
 Kiok-ala-daria, 55, 57, 73, 74, 97, 161, 163. 
 
 Kirghiz, traditions of, 181, 199 ; hordes, 182 ; names, 189 ; 
 
 191, 198, 213, 217. 
 Kizais, 201. 
 
 li 2 
 
244 INDEX. 
 
 Klaproth referred to, 137, 170, 174. 
 
 Kobdo, town of, 218. 
 
 Koko-nor, 157. 
 
 Kokshal E., 19. 
 
 Koksu E., 181, 210, 222, se^., 225, 226. 
 
 Kola, 206. 
 
 Kolyvan E., and district, 207, 215. 
 
 Koncheh-daria, 50, 54, seq^., 56, seq^., 71, 143, 148, 161, seq. 
 
 Kopal, town of, 181, 182, 185. 
 
 Kora E., 181. 
 
 Korla, town of, 16, 21, 22, 48, seq., 55, 69, 119, 127, 142, 146, 
 seq., 153. 
 
 Korobikha, village of, 230. 
 
 Koshotes, 28, 150. 
 
 Kucha, 20. 
 
 Kuen-lun range, 27, 58, 136. 
 
 Kukeh-tau-daban, 180. 
 
 Kulja, 8, 9, 18, 31, seq., 178, seq. ; treaty of, 194. 
 
 Kum-tagh, 81, 87, 88, seq., 93. 
 
 Kunges E., 9, 34, seq. 132, 141, 178. 
 
 KuniO'sJiari, 77. 
 
 Kurugh-tagb mountains, 22, seq., 54, 88, 142, seq. 
 
 Kurungle, see Korla. 
 
 Kurungle-tak, see Kurugh-tagh. 
 
 KusH, see Khas. 
 
 Kushluk, see Gushluk. 
 
 Kuznetsk, 207. 
 
 Kuzu-Kerpetch, legend of, 175. 
 
 Kyzyl-tuz, lake, 199. 
 
 L. 
 
 LAN-CHATJ-rU, 157. 
 
 Lassen, M., 26. 
 
 LepsaE., 173, 175, 179, seqq. 
 
 Lepsinsky, Stanitsa, 180. 
 
 Leu-Ian, 144, 148, 150, 151, 154, 158. 
 
 Listviajny mountains, 210, 230. 
 
 Lob, ancient city of, 24, 77, 135, seq ; tradition of, 25. 
 
INDEX. 245 
 
 Locusts in Altyn-tagh mountains, 84. 
 
 Loktieff works, 213. 
 
 Lob-nor, the lake, 16, 26, seq., 99, seqq.; district of, 28 ; popula- 
 tion of, 29, 103, seqq., 149, seqq. ; desert of, 55, 81, 83, 135, 
 143 ; vegetation of, 59, 108 ; height of, 72 ; 75, 76, 80, 
 95, 97 ; hunters of, 89, 91 ; name of, 98 ; fauna of, 116 ; 
 122, seqq., 136, seq., 148, 153, 159 ; water of, 100, 145, 
 149, 164 ; position of, 137. 
 
 M. 
 
 Manolai Khan, 41. 
 
 Maral, or deers' lake, 230. 
 
 Marco Polo, referred to, 20, 23, 24, 76, 77, 93, 135, 139, 152, 
 
 155, seq. 
 Maremianoff, boyard, 171. 
 Marena, a fish, 173. 
 MarignoUi, referred to, 6. 
 Mayo, Lord, 15. 
 
 Migration of birds, 104, 118, 122, seq. 
 Mirza Haidar, 77. 
 
 Mohammedan insurrection, 33 ; religion, spread of, 152. 
 Morin lake, in Prussia, 173. 
 Mormons mentioned, 236. 
 Morozofi", 194. 
 Mouravieff, 203. 
 Muzalma, or ice apple, 22. 
 Muzart pass, 19, 34, 56, 161 ; Russian explorations in, 177. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nadie Shah, 52. 
 Nafopo, see Leu-Ian. 
 Nai, 155. 
 
 Narat range, 40 seq., 141. 
 Narym R., 212, 214. 
 Naryn-uzak, 191, 193. 
 Neale, Dr., 203. 
 Nebolsin, General, 52. 
 
246 IiNDEX. 
 
 Nia, see Nai. 
 
 Niaz Beg, 11. 
 
 Nicholas, Emperor, his measures against Starovertsi, 205. 
 
 NifantiefF, expedition of, 182, seqq^. 
 
 Nijang, see Keria. 
 
 Nikon, the patriarch, 203. 
 
 Nirao or Chemotona, 156. 
 
 Nukha, 52. 
 
 0. 
 Obi E., 226. 
 
 Odonkure chain and pass, 141. 
 Oirat or Confederates, 7, 9. 
 Olonetz, Government, 205, 209. 
 Omsk, 171, 182, 232. 
 Onega, Starovertsi at, 206. 
 Ordos, 58. 
 Ornithology, notices of, 39, 43, 49, G2, seq., 85, 103, seq., 
 
 116, seq., 122, seq., 125, 131, 132, 166—168. 
 OttogusJi sJiari, 76. 
 Ovis Poli, 44, 45. 
 
 P. 
 
 Pamib, 138. 
 
 Pansner, the cartographer, 174. 
 
 Peel, General, 215, 220. 
 
 Pei-kiu, reports of, 151, 170. 
 
 Pein, Peino or Peym, 135, 156. 
 
 Peking, 178. 
 
 Petcheh, 230. 
 
 Petermann's map, 157. 
 
 Phoeseans, 236. 
 
 Ping-nan mountains, 144. 
 
 Podzoroff, Lieutenant, 171. 
 
 Poltoratsky, General, 177, 194. 
 
 Povalo-Sehweikofsky, Lieutenant, 32, 44. 
 
 Prejevalsky, Colonel, complains of Yakub Beg, 14, 51, 53 ; his 
 
 journey, 24, 158 ; observations, 23 ; Richthofen's remarks 
 
 on, 135, 159 ; his replies, 160, 165. 
 
INDEX. 247 
 
 Printz, M., 207, seq^q., 221, seqq. 
 
 Priy^sjeflf, 219, seq. 
 
 Pu-chang-hai, see Lob. 
 
 Pulkovo Observatory, 176. 
 
 Pului-hai, see Lob. 
 
 Putimtseff, the Russian traveller, 178. 
 
 E. 
 
 EiDLorp, M., referred to, 33. 
 
 Eakhmet Beg, an official of Yakub Beg, 79. 
 
 Easkol or dissent, 203. 
 
 Eichthofen, Baron von, remarks by, on Prejevalsky's journey to 
 
 Lob, iv., 135 — 159 ; Prejevalsky's replies to, 160—165. 
 Ritter, Carl, his works referred to, 187. 
 EubiTiquis, Friar, 188. 
 
 S. 
 
 Sables, mode of catching, 233, seq. 
 
 Sairam, town of, 56. 
 
 Salt, mode of obtaining, 213. 
 
 Sanscrit names, 151, 156. 
 
 Sari-su E., 176. 
 
 Sassik-kul, 188, 192. 
 
 Satuk Boghra Khan, 3. 
 
 Schrenk, the traveller, 173, 187, 191. 
 
 Schuyler, 31, 33, 38, 177, seqq., 188, 199. 
 
 Semeonoff, 176, 178, 180, 189, seq. 
 
 Semipalatinsk, 18,, 32, 182, 201. 
 
 Semirechinsk, 169. 
 
 Sennoi, viUage of, 229, 232. 
 
 Sergiopol, 199. 
 
 Severtseff, 88. 
 
 Sha-chau, 81, 86, 144, 147. 
 
 Shadee, Mirza, 15 seq. 
 
 Shah Eukh's embassy, 35, 93, 140, 152. 
 
 Shaw, the traveller, 12, 14, 138, seq., 143, 148, 155, 157, seq. 
 
 Shekin, Khans of, 52. 
 
248 INDEX. 
 
 Shen-shen, see Leu-Ian. 
 
 Shepeleff, Captain, 177. 
 
 Shikho, 44. 
 
 Shui-su, village of, 163. 
 
 Shulbin works, 207. 
 
 Siberia, early map of, 171 ; natives of, 222. 
 
 Si-hai, see Balkash. 
 
 Sing-su-hai, 137. 
 
 Sining-fu, 157. 
 
 Solikama, 209. 
 
 Sosnoffsky, 194. 
 
 Spruner, the geographer, 170. 
 
 Starovertsi, at Lob-nor, 66, 77, 206 ; in Central Russia, 203, 
 
 seqq. ; 202—236. 
 Stoliozka, Dr., 17, 193. 
 Sudak, a fish, 173. 
 Sui dynasty, 151. 
 
 Sung-yun, the Samanean pilgrim, 151. 
 Syawush, 1. 
 Syud Yakub Khan, 10. 
 Szeczenyi, Count Bela, 159. 
 
 T. 
 
 Taiga, meaning of, 225. 
 
 Tamarshin, Khan, 6. 
 
 Tang dynasty, 151. 
 
 Taranchi, 8, 33, seq., 66. 
 
 Tarbagatai mountains, 9, 188, 201. 
 
 Tarikhi Rashidi, 26. 
 
 Tarim R., 26, 49, 55, seqq. ; its name, 56, 165 ; its people, 64, 
 
 seq., 66, 78, 97, 154; disappearance of, 101; 137, seq., 145, 
 
 seqq. ; its fauna, 166, seqq. 
 Tarimtei, see people of Tarim R. 
 Tash-kala, 192. 
 Tegeretsky outpost, 207, seq. 
 Tekes, R., 9, 84, 177, seq. 
 Tenghiz, see Balkash. 
 Tengri-ula chain, 141. 
 
INDEX. 249 
 
 Tian-shan range, 19, 27, 37, 46, 63, 107, 138, 141, seq., 152, 
 
 177, seg. 
 Tibet, road to, 86. 
 Tie-men-kwan pass, 142. 
 Tiersky, Lieutenant, 172. 
 Timkowsky's travels, 153. 
 Timour's campaigns, 22. 
 Titles in Central Asia, 115. 
 Tokhta-akoond, Colonel Prejevalsky's guide, 48. 
 Toksum, 51. 
 
 Tokus-dawan, " the nine passes,'' see Tuguz-daban. 
 Tomsk, government of, 207. 
 
 Trade routes, old Chinese, 151 ; new Eussian, 194. 
 Trotter, Captain, 118. 
 Tsaidam, 157, 165. 
 Tsanma E., 35, se^., 132, 141. 
 Tsevan Araptan, 171. 
 Tuguz-daban, 83, 157. 
 Tuholo, buried cities of, 156. 
 Tumentsi, 201. 
 Tun-hwang, 152. 
 Turaigir, 189. 
 Turfan, 28, 78, 79. 
 Turgun-ussu E., 214. 
 Turgutes, 9, 28, 35, 48, 141, 178. 
 
 U. 
 
 Ugen-daeia, 56, seq^., 64, 71, 146, sej'g'., 161. 
 
 Uighurs, 3, 4. 
 
 Uimon, 221, seq^. 
 
 Ulan-sadak-dabaghan, 141. 
 
 Ulba E., 210. 
 
 Ului-chong, 143. 
 
 Urdjar, 194, 200. 
 
 TJrgali lake, 188. 
 
 IJruratsi, or Ourumtsi, 79, 141, 178. 
 
 Ush-Aktal, 23, 79. 
 
 S 
 
250 INDEX. 
 
 Ust-Kamennogorsk, 171, 207, seg[., 219. 
 Uzunai, 191. 
 
 VENirKOFF, M., 174, 196. 
 Verkny Charish, 207. 
 Verkny Narymsk, 230. 
 Verny or Vernoye, 32, 182. 
 Victoria lake, Wood's, 118. 
 Volcanoes in Central Asia, 193. 
 
 W. 
 
 Wallace's Eussia, 35, 77, 203. 
 Wyllie, Mr., 12, seq. 
 
 Y. 
 
 Yakub Beg, Ameer, death of, 8; 9, 12, 17, 119 ; interview with, 
 
 127, seq. ; 133. 
 Yamish, lake and fort, 18, 172. 
 Yarkand, English merchants in, 11 ; trade with, 13 ; first 
 
 mission to, 15, 17. 
 Yarkand-daria, 56, 136, 165. 
 Yassak, 215. 
 
 Yellow E., see Hoang-ho. 
 Yenissey E., 182. 
 Yulduz Valley, 21, seq., 28, 40—47 ; its name, 41 ; fauna, 43 ; 
 
 140, seq. 
 Yule, Colonel, iv., 5, 24, 35, 77, 79, 135, 139, 151, 156. 
 Yuni, 150. 
 
 Yuri Miloslafsky, Eussian novel, 204. 
 Yutien, see Khoten. 
 
 Z, 
 
 Zaisan, lake, 18, 189, 212. 
 
INDEX. 251 
 
 Zakharoff, M., 199. 
 
 Zaman Beg, official of Yakub Beg, 52, seq., 65, 72, 73. 
 Zamcha E., 21. 
 Zeleony, Lieutenant, 214. 
 
 Zoology, notices of, 38, seq., 44, seqq., 61, seqq., 84, seq., 91, 
 seg'j'., 166, seqq. 
 
 THE END. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 GILBEltT AND EIVINGTON, PIlINTEllS, 
 
 ST. JOHN'S SQUAKE.