July 21, 1904 J 



NA TURF. 



277 



and its ancient name was Hu-kvvo. The Chinese docu- 

 ments date to the end of the eighth century, long; after 

 the Indian l-:ingdom was extinct, and when the Chinese 

 dominion, which had been triumphantly re-asserted by 

 T"antj Tai-tsong-, was seriously threatened by the in- 

 roads of the " Ta-Fan " or Tibetans. Actual Tibetan 

 relics were discovered at Dandan-Uiliq. 



Larger antiquities were also discovered here, chiefly 

 Buddhist reliefs of stucco, and, more interesting still, 

 frescoes \yhich give us an unlooked-for insight into 

 the art of Khotan .-it this period. Exhibited in the 

 Chinese section of the British Museum is a remarkable 

 fresco from Dandan-L'ilicj, one of the most important 

 of Dr. Stein's discoveries, representing two equestrian 

 figures, with their costume most carefully depicted. 

 This is not illustrated in Dr. Stein's book, and the 

 omission is to be regretted, as the picture is one 

 eminently calculated to interest the general reader for 

 whose use the " Sand-buried Ruins of Khotan " is 

 chiefly intended. 



.\nother site, beyond Niva, at Endere, has yielded 



-Eroded Ranges of the Ku 



remains of the same date as those from Dandan-Uiliq. 

 This place, Endere, is the most easterly point which 

 Dr. .Stein reached in his explorations. It is distant 

 from Khotan some 250 miles, and from I-vashgar 

 no less than 550 miles. This fact alone gives 

 some idea of the extent of ground which Dr. Stein 

 covered in his rapid journeyings. His explorations were 

 indeed carried out with remarkable energy, and their 

 great success is the fitting reward of this energy and 

 pluck. For it must be remembered that much of Dr. 

 .Stein's work was carried out in the intense cold of a 

 Kashgarian winter, when the thermometer often fell 

 lo below zero Fahrenheit in the explorer's tent, when it 

 was hardly possible to hold a pen for the cold, and even 

 sleep was sometimes banished by its intensity. L'nder 

 these extreme conditions Dandan-Uiliq and Niya were 

 excavated. If we add to these rigours the difficulties 

 of the journey from India over the Pamir passes, we 

 gain some idea of what Dr. Stein has done. His 

 mission has succeeded beyond his own most sanguine 

 expectations, and the Indian Government has indeed 

 served the cause of science well in sending him to 

 Turkestan. 



NO. 181 2, VOL. 70] 



Incidentally Dr. Stein carried out very important sur- 

 veys of the Kuen-Lun range (Fig. 2), and connected his 

 own surveys with the trigonometrical survey of India, 

 thus definitely fixing the exact geographical position 

 of Khotan. Also he was enabled to do a great service 

 to archaeology by detecting and exposing the remark- 

 able forgeries of ancient documents in " unknown 

 scripts," the work of a clever rascal named Islam 

 Akhun and a few confederates, which had been sold to 

 travellers as genuine antiques, and had long mystified 

 the learned into whose hands they had come. It was 

 the appearance in India of these forgeries (together 

 with a few genuine relics from Dandan-Uiliq, which 

 had given the forger the idea of his deception) which 

 first impelled Dr. Stein to the systematic exploration 

 of the ruined " cities " from which they were said to 

 have come. He has now cleared up the mystery : we 

 now know what is genuine in the way of written docu- 

 ments from Turkestan and what is 'not. But, above 

 all. Dr. Stein has discovered really new archaological 

 mat-rial in the Kharoshthi tablets from Niya and in the 

 Brahmi documents in a non-Indian 

 tongue from Dandan-Uiliq. To 

 students of Buddhism the relics of 

 religious art from Dandan-Uiliq, 

 the Rawak Stupa, and Yotkan will 

 provide material for very important 

 «ork. H. R. Hall. 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION 

 MEETING AT CAMBRIDGE. 



IN a former article (Nature, 

 April 21), a preliminary lorecast 

 \\ as given of the local arrangements 

 or the meeting of the British 

 \ssociation, to be held at Cam- 

 liridge from .August 17 to 24. The 

 I'Togramme is now in an advanced 

 ^late of preparation, and copies may 

 he obtained after July 25 on appli- 

 ^ .ition to the local secretaries at 

 Cambridge. It may be of interest 

 to give a short account of the 

 arrangements in amplification of 

 the incomplete summary already 

 published. 



It is expected that meetings of a 

 sub-committee appointed by the 

 International Meteorological Com- 

 mittee at Southport in September, 1903, to combine 

 and discuss meteorological observations from the point 

 of view of their relations with solar physics, will be 

 held at Cambridge during the session of the associa- 

 tion. The committee consists of twenty-two members, 

 of whom eighteen represent the observatories or 

 meteorological institutions of the Continent and 

 .America. The primary object of the meeting in Cam- 

 bridge will be to constitute the organisation of the 

 committee, and prepare a scheme of operations. The 

 members of the committee will take part in the pro- 

 ceedings of Section A, particularly the subsection 

 which deals with cosmical physics, under the presi- 

 dency of Sir John Eliot, F.R.S. 



The conference of delegates of corresponding 

 societies will meet on Thursday, August 18, and 

 Tuesday, .\ugust 23, at 3 p.m., in the large lecture- 

 room, Gonville and Caius College. 



Mr. Balfour will assume the presidency, and deliver 

 an address in the Corn Exchange on August 17, at 

 8.30 p.m. A plan of the Corn Exchange may be seen 

 in the reception room, and reserved seats secured up 

 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, August 17. For the con- 



From "Sand-buried 



