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60
EAST ASIA.
Chapman, Bellew, Stoliczka. The fertile region of the plains was now visited in
every direction, whLle farther west the "Roof of the World" was reached from
the Upper Oxus valleys.
Nor were the Russians on their idle.
part
Valikhanov in 1858, and Osten
Sacken in 1867, had crossed the Tian-shan, thence descending from the north
down to the Kashgarian plains. In 1876 Kuropatkin penetrated by the Terek-
davan route into the Tarim basin, skirting
the southern foot of the Tian-shan as
far as Lake Karashar. Following in his footsteps, Regel has recently pushed
farther eastwards along the " imperial highway " always taken by the Chinese on
their military and commercial expeditions
towards the Tian-shan. The itineraries
of Mushketov and others have now connected this route with those of Kulja on the
opposite side, while Prjevalsky, plunging into the desert, has surveyed all the
eastern section of the Tarim basin between the Tian-shan and the Altin-tagh.
But the regions stretching along the foot of the Kuen-lun, formerly traversed by
Marco Polo and Benedict de Goes, still remain unexplored.
EXTENT POPULATION WATER SYSTEM THE KARA-HASH.
From the results of the English and Russian surveys Chinese Turkestan would
appear to have an area of 480,000 square miles, with a population estimated by
Forsyth at no more than 580,000, and which cannot in any case exceed a million.
But here water is scarce, and desert begins wherever the flowing stream runs dry.
The lofty crests of the encircling ranges often tower far above the snow-line, but
the streams discharged by them do not always reach the open plains. They are
nevertheless gathered together in sufficient number to develop a large river basin.
East of Khotan none" of the Kuen-lun and Altin-tagh torrents reach the central
reservoir of this basin except the Cherchen-daria, one of the most copious of all
the streams joining the Tarim above Lake Lob. The affluents of the Khotan-daria,
one of the main branches of the Tarim, were formerly renowned throughout Asia
as the " rivers of Jade." All the Chinese records describe the Khotaii as formed
of three head-streams, each of which sends down jade pebbles of a special colour.
To the east flows the "river of green Jade," to the west that of "black Jade,"
between the two that of " white Jade." Two at least of these rivers have preserved
their name under the Turki forms of Urung-kash (" White Jade") and Kara-
kash Black Jade
(" The ").
latter, by far the largest, rises in Kashmir, far to the
south of the Kuen-lun, at an altitude of over 16,000 feet, and flows from the Kara-
korum through a succession of gorges down to the northern base of the Kuen-lun,
finally escaping through the Shah-i-dulah ravine to the plain of Khotan.
East of the Upper Kara-kash valley tho plain crossed by travellers proceeding
from the Indus to the Tarim basin is largely covered with saline and other efflo-
rescences. The lake by which it was formerly flooded has disappeared, and even
the streams which succeeded it have been swallowed up in the shifting sands.
Deep crevasses are here and there filled with sulphate of magnesia as white and
fine as the driven snow. The deeper cavities are occupied by muddy salt marshes,