110 
NATURE 
[OcToBER 12, 1916 
SIR AUREL STEIN’S THIRD JOURNEY 
IN CENTRAL ASIA. 
~IR AUREL STEIN publishes, in the August 
“72 and September issues of the Geographical 
Journal, an account of his third journey in Central 
Asia. 
Starting from Srinagar, in Kashmir, in July, 
1913, the first point of interest reached was the 
Darel Valley, where, at his new capital, Gumare- 
kot, Raja Pakhtun-wali, son of Mir Wali, the 
murderer of Hayward the explorer, has succeeded 
in building up a new kingdom, the last, perhaps, 
which India has seen founded on the old adven- 
Fic. 1.—Lowes: portion of Chillinji Glacier, seen from west across Ashkuman River. 
From the Geographical Journal. 
turous lines. The fine glacier scenery of this 
region is ‘illustrated by the view of the Chillinji 
Glacier (Fig. 1).° Inthis valley of Darel the explorer 
succeeded: in identifying, at. Poguch, the site of 
an ancient Buddhist monastery which the Chinese 
pilgrims specially mention cn account of its 
miracle-working colossal image of ° Maitreya 
Buddha in wood. As an _ illustration of ‘the 
continuity of Oriental cults, the site is now occu- 
pied and the healing business taken over by the 
tomb of Shaha-Khel Baba, a Mohammedan saint, 
who has inherited the miraculous powers of his 
Buddhist predecessors. Thence over very difficult 
NO. 2450, VOL. 98] 
ground the traveller pushed on through the Yasin 
Valley to the Darkof Pass, the scene of the 
remarkable exploit by which a Chinese force, 
dispatched in a.p. 747 from Kashgar against the 
Tibetans, succeeded in effecting an entry into 
Yasin and Gilgit. 
By the beginning of September the party 
reached the main head of the Hunza Valley, and 
marched thence to Tashkurghan and Kashgar, 
where, as usual, Sir G. Macartney, the British 
Consul-General, supplied liberal aid to the expedi- 
tion. Since Sir Aurel Stein’s last visit, owing to 
the Chinese revolution of 1911, the political situa- 
tion had changed for the worse. Mandarins had 
been assassinated, and local revolts 
had resulted in a general weakening 
of Chinese authority. From Kash- 
gar the goal was the region round 
the dried-up Lop-nor, in the extreme 
east of the Tarim Basin. Beyond 
Mural-Bashi,. Stein reached the. most 
forbidding region he had hitherto 
encountered in Taklamakan, and 
after meeting great difficulties he re- 
turned to’ his old station, Khotan. 
In this region many interesting dis- 
coveries were made. He succeeded 
in fixing the site of Hsuan-tsang’s 
Pi-mo, the Pein of Marco Polo, at a 
Buddhist shrine near Domoku, and 
a large number of tablets inscribed 
in the Kharoshthi character, and 
dating from the first century of our 
era, was found. 
Passing Charchan on New Year’s 
Eve, 1914, he found that a band of 
so-called ‘‘gamblers,” or vagrant 
outlaws, had overthrown Chinese 
authority. At Miran paintings of 
great interest, almost Hellenistic im 
style, were unearthed. Later on the 
ancient Chinese road into the Tarim 
Basin. was identified, and further 
finds of decorated silk fabrics will 
contrtbute to the solution of the prob- 
lem of origin in the designs dis- 
covered in an earlier journey near 
Tun-huang, usually attributed to 
Persian art of the Sassanian period. 
Equally. interesting were the desic- 
cated corpses of the old chief and 
his family, with their well-preserved 
arms and dresses. The illustration (Fig. 2) of an 
ancient fort near Lou-Lan gives a good idea of the 
sites which came under investigation. 
The first portion of'the narrative leaves the ex- 
plorer on the western portion of the fortified 
Chinese line which was first examined in 1907. 
The fact that he could, after seven years’ absence, 
identify his own footsteps and the footprints of 
his dog shows the permanence of records of travel 
in these desert wastes. 
The second chapter of the story finds the 
traveller starting early in 1915 to examine the 
deserts which fringe on the south and east the 
Se eee 
