1923%20Memoir%20on%20Maps%20of%20Chinese%20Turkistan%20by%20Stein%20s

S NO'I'ES ON INDI\'IDU.\L AIAP SIIEISTS [Chap. IV
(.I. I ) to the south of Lo-t'o-cl~i~~g (1). 3),
nl1pe:ws to corrcsl~o~~il in position nntl con-
1igur:tlion to the lirst four rirnges of the
I'ei-slrnn, d~scri1)ril 111ap1)ed 1)). Proft~ssor
l.'r~ttrrrr or1 his route fronr \vest. of 3Iiugslrui
to tlie Su-10-110 ])end. -"
J~tst as is the c:lse on t.llis far more
\\-esterl!. rot~t~, tlle S'COII~ a11d tl~ird of t,he
r:lui,'es, eei~ro~~ritered by 11s 11ort 11 of (lamps
"I:! and 209 reaj~eetively (U. 2, C. 3), showed
lhc Irigl~est 1:aas-levels, b11t \vitlroot arrv
~tril;ingly great elevntioils aboveeither pass. 'q
TYl~ereas, ho\vever, on l'rof. 12utterer's routeline
the \vide ralleys or plateans sepa~ating
the ranges all seem to tlescend gently \vestnfnrd,
those crossed by ollr ror~te invariably
al~l'eared to have their drainage to the east
or north-east, i.~,., in the direction of the
Etsin-go1 valley and basin. The chain of
lor hills shotrn on our map extending n0rt.h
of the Su-10-110 bend and the Hun-lrai-t,zu
depression, and an easterly coiltinuat,ion
crossed by our routes from Mao-mei (Sheet
No. 42. l3, C. 3), evidently represent the
fifth and soothern~nost Pei-shan range.
The zone in tlle southern part of tlle
sheet shows several geographically interesting
features. In the west we have the head
of the lower Su-lo-ho valley, below the
river's debouchnre from the mountains.
Further down (A. 4) its bed is hemmed in
by a well-marked defile between the bold
\17ang-shan-tzu ridge, representing the eastern
extremity of the outermost Nan-sban
chain on the south, and a flat, spur of the
~outhernmost Pei-shan range on the north.
Into the basin-like head of the lower Sulo-ho
valley thus formed, there slopes down
the almost imperceptible watershed, dividing
it from the plateau between the two outer hill
chains of the Nan-shan, which contalns the
small oases of T'a-shih and Ch'iao-tzu (A. 5).
The latter derives its irrigation from spriugs,
9 See above p. 95, note 26.
6ee Fritterer, Lac. cit., p. 17. The highest
po~ut of Pntterer's route, reached ou the pass ot his
third range was 2,130 metres or 6,988 feet. This correrponds
almost exactly to the elevation of our
pass, 7,010 feet, acroas the Ma-tann-ahan (C. 3), the
third range fron~ the north.
a9 Cf. Serindia, iii. pp. 1100 sqq.
" See above pp. 32. 60. Prof. Fntterer's above
quoted paper, Oeo.qra)~h. Skizze der Wiisfe Qobi, p. 24,
mentions that the Chinese ' Wn-chang Map ', dating
from the 17th century, shows a long-stretched lake or
mareh bed Lo the north of the Gu-lo-ho bmd, extend-
and the exist,rnce of a large ruined site above
tl~cse, at the foot of a gr:~vcl glncis sloping
dow11 from the or~ter NILII-SIIXII range to the
soatl~, I~ere offers clear e\.itlcnce of desiccation
within historical timrs. ?" IVllether
this outer m~~ge, tlre secontl from the north,
II:IS a traceable continuation eastn,nrd on the
wide gravel plaris sloping I I tomards ~ the
SII-lo-110 debo~~churr reniaios do~~btfol.
'l'lre oasis of l'ii-m6n-hs~en (C. 5) derives
its narlle from tlre ancient. ' Jade Gate '
(I'I~-IIIPI/) of the Li,//cs, originallv situated
in Wan times far to t,l~e west of Tun-haang
( No. 36. n. 4 ). Its cultivation stretches
down to the ~leighbourhood of a practically
level flat of scrubby, and in parts boggy,
ground dividing the Su-lo-ho valley from
the Hun-hai-tzu depression eastmards. This
peculiar feature accounts for the curious
bifurcation previously mentioned by which
the Su-lo-110, partly throng11 irrigat,ion
channels and partly t.hrol~,oh inundation in
the season of floods, feeds a stream flowing
past the hamlets of Shih-drh-tun and Sliihtun
into the Hua-hai-tz11 basin. 30
This last named basin (D. 5) is a drainageless
area, bordered in the north by the
foot of the outermost l'ei-shan range and in
the sooth by a rugged hill-chain which
trends to the south-east and attains its
greatest height near Chia-gii-kuan west of
Su-chou ( No. 43 A. 1 ). The relation of
this hill-chain to the Ala-shan mountain
system, of which it appears like an extreme
western continuation, must remain for the
jwesent doubtful. Apart from the stream
below Yii-m&n-hsien there drain int,o the
Iiua-hai-tzu basin the rivers of Ch'ili-chin
and Po-yang-ho, coming from the Nan-shan
and cutting through the hill chain just
named in deep gorges. The subsoil drainage
from the former gathers in springs below
its alluvial fan and supplies irrigation to the
ing also for a co~~siderable
distance to the east. This
extensive lake bas continued to he 8hou.n in modern
maps, though its existence was rightly denied by
Hnssiao tr;~vcllers.
The question an to how far the Chinese carto-
graphic representation can be accounted for by the
boggy ground below Yii-men-hsien plus the basin of
Hoa-hai-tsu most be left for examination elsewhere.
The line followed by the remains of the ancient Limes,
which I traced both to the east and north-west of
Bhih-drh-tan, makes the existence here of an exten-
live lnke during or since Han times highly improh-
able.