THE KARLIK TAGH 499 



antiquities of this region have been investigated by Dr. 

 von Lecoq and Professor Griinwedel, who explored those 

 they considered worthy of excavation, near Togucha, to 

 the west of Kumul, where they found interesting remains 

 belonging to Buddhist times. 



Many other travellers have, no doubt, passed through 

 Kumul on their way east or west, but none, except 

 those here enumerated, have, so far as I can ascertain, 

 visited Karlik Tagh or Barkul. The object of our visit 

 was to complete the survey of the region and to bring 

 out a detailed map of the whole mountain-group, as 

 well as to gain some idea of its fauna, so as to be able to 

 decide the exact place the Karlik Tagh holds in the life- 

 zones of Central Asia. A lateral journey to the far east, 

 which should have included a visit to the Ati Bogdo, 

 was planned, but this most important portion of the 

 programme had to be given up, owing primarily to 

 the extreme difficulty of finding transport or guides into 

 a region to which men never go — from this quarter, 

 as well as to lack of time. By making a complete 

 circle around the range, however, by penetrating to 

 its uppermost valleys, and clambering (with no small 

 amount of difficulty) over its rugged sandstone foot-hills, 

 we gained a reliable idea of its physical features and 

 a rare insight into the conditions of life on this insular 

 mountain-group. ' 



The panorama of mountains spread out to the north 

 and north-east of Kumul was instructive. North of the 

 oasis, at a distance of about twenty-five miles, lay the 

 Barkul Range, running east and west, in a narrow 

 ridge. The western part of this range presented the 

 appearance of a fiat-topped block-mountain, but in 



^ See map at end of volume. 



