A JOURNEY OF GEOGRAPHICAL AND ARCII.EOLOGICAL 

 EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN/' 



By M. A. Stein, Ph. D., 

 Indian Educational Service. 



Ill June, 1900, the government of India placed me on a year's special 

 duty in order to enal)le me to carry out a long-cherished plan of 

 archaeological explorations in the southern portion of Chinese Turke- 

 stan and particularly in the region of Khotan. Many previous antiqua- 

 rian tours in Kashmir, the Puiijah, and on the fascinating ground of the 

 northwest frontier of India, had taught me the necessity of close topo- 

 graphical observation as an important adjunct of historical research 

 in those iields toward which, as an Indian archteologist, I felt most 

 attracted. It was hence clear to me that the task awaiting me in 

 Chinese Turkestan would have to comprise also surveying operations, 

 such as are required for the accurate fixing of the position of ancient 

 sites, and generally for the elucidation of the historical topograph}' 

 of the country. But in addition I was anxious from the first to avail 

 myself of the opportunities the journey might oti'er foi- geographical 

 work of a more general character in regions that had so far remained 

 without a proper survej'^ or altogether unexplored. 



The generous aid accorded to me by the Indian survey department 

 made it ])ossible to carry on a continuous S3^stem of surveys, by plane- 

 table, astronomical observations, and triangulation, throughout the 

 course of my journey. Its results have been embodied in maps which 

 are shortly to be published In- the trigonometrical ])ranch of the 

 survey of India. These maps, as well as the detailed report of my 

 explorations on which I am at present engaged under the orders of the 

 India government, will, I hope, show that 1 have spared no eft'orts to 

 utilize the opportunities oti'ered to me in the interest of geographical 

 sci(uice. In the meantime, it is a source of sincere gratification to me 

 that I am enabled, by the courtesy of your council, to place this suc- 

 cinct account of my journey and labors before the Roj^al Geograph- 

 ical Society, which, since the days of those great scholars. Sir Henry 

 Rawlinson and Sir Henry Yule, has done so much to clear the way for 

 the critical study of the ancient geography of India and Central Asia. 



« Read before the Roj'al Geographical Society, June 16, 1902. Reprinted from The 

 < ieographioal Journal, London, vol. xx, No. 0, December, 1902, pp. 575-(510. 



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