TRAVELS TO LOB-NOR.
CHAPTER I.
Departure from Kulja — Valley of the Ili — Crossing the Tekes — Inhahitants — Fertility of Kunges Valley — Abundance of fruit; bears, birds, &c. — Pass to the Tsanma — Fir forests — Autumn in the mountains — The Narat range — Yulduz and its fauna — Hunting — Ovis Poll — Descent of Tian Shan — Yakub 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.[1] 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 Russian administration of the province of Ili; 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 Turkistan, ii. 162 et seqq.—M.]
