reported to be two miles in circumference, and watch-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,[1] 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[2] 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 "Biélovódiye," said of them that the first detachment to arrive at Lob-nor in 1861 numbered altogether ten men. After prospecting the locality two of their number returned, and the following year a more numerous party, consisting of 160 men and women,[3] 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 Russian Greek Church, for some account of their sects, vide chap. XX. of Wallace's Russia.—M.]
- ↑ Some said there were only seventy Russians, but the former figure is most probably correct.
