456 SOUTHERN DZUNGARIA 



on the edge of the desert. There was httle else of 

 interest to be noted, the town itself existing, for the 

 most part, as a sorting-house for goods in transit. Its 

 surroundings were exceptionally fine, with the illimitable 

 plains stretching to the north, east, and west, and with a 

 background composed of the giant peaks of the Bogdo-ola. 

 It was up to this point that the most recent traveller, 

 Professor Merzbacher, had carried on his systematic 

 exploration of the Tian Shan, but beyond this point 

 eastwards he had not worked ; here, therefore, I in- 

 tended to take up my surveying in order to continue it 

 to the furthermost limit of the Karlik Tagh, some three 

 hundred miles to the east. The season of the year, 

 and the deep snow, compelled us to put off any 

 idea we had of travelling in the mountains until a 

 much later date. We had to content ourselves with 

 the wonderful spectacle which this range — under fresh 

 snow — presented to us with a desert foreground of forty 

 miles ; we determined, therefore, to penetrate its upper 

 valleys and visit its sacred lake on our return to these 

 regions during the following summer. 



In strange contrast to the snows on the south of 

 Guchen were the sands on the north. Since leaving 

 Urumchi we had noticed a long line of sand-dunes, running 

 parallel to our route on the north, at a distance of about 

 fifteen miles. These belonged to an outlying portion of 

 the great sand-belt of Central Dzungaria, which here 

 approaches to within a day's journey of the southern 

 border-ranges. The heart of Dzungaria had been crossed 

 by the Russian explorers Prjevalsky and Kozloff, but 

 we had little information as to the character of the 

 central plains or as to the type of sand-desert found 

 in their midst ; we knew nothing as to the extent of 



