THE KARLIK TAGH 495 



of the Bogdo-ola section, it then rises again in one 

 last effort, attains a worthy altitude of over 14,000 ft., 

 and drops sheer into utter desert. This solitary group 

 of snow pinnacles stands as a sentinel guarding the 

 marches of Mongolia, of Dzungaria, and of Turkestan. 

 Day after day, during our tramps around the range, 

 those peaks were our land-mark, and for weeks during 

 our survey-work our " sights" rested continually on them. 

 Far out into the deserts beyond, they guided us and put 

 aright our erring calculations. They were a source 

 of wonder, whether sulphur-yellow as dawn flushed the 

 sky, or caught at evening by the rose-gleam when the 

 flats below were already dusky; scarcely a day passed 

 without our being treated to some new impression of the 

 Karlik Tagh. 



A word as to our forerunners in these regions and 

 the extent of their discoveries. 



In 1872 we received the first accounts of the way 

 thither from Russian territory, through the means of a 

 trading expedition, which a Russian merchant despatched 

 into Mongolia, and which touched at Barkul on its 

 wanderings. It was not until 1875, however, that the 

 first true explorers, coming across the Gobi Desert from 

 China, roughly recorded the topography of Kumul, 

 Barkul, and the neighbouring mountains. These were 

 Russians — Sosnovski and Matussovski, who came 

 through to Kumul by the high-road from Western China, 

 and, crossing the passes to Barkul, visited Guchen on 

 their way home to Siberia. A member of the expedition, 

 Piassetsky, left us an account of this journey, one of the 

 few records of Russian travel which has been translated 

 into the English language. 



To these travellers must be assigned the honour of 

 II — 12 



