394 "^^^ National Geographic Magazine 



Among other curiosities that Dr. Sven 

 Hedin will bring home are thirty little 

 pieces of wood, which, so far as he can 

 judge at present, must have been used 

 as some kind of ticket. Kach one has 

 inscribed on it the name of some em- 

 peror, the year of his reign, the month, 

 and even the very day. A ' ' siah ' ' who 

 has read some of them tells Dr. Hedin 

 that they are 800 years old, but the latter 

 feels that he cannot form a definite 

 opinion until he has had them trans- 

 lated on his return. 



Among the ruins Dr. Hedin found a 

 beautiful Buddhist temple, in which he 

 saw some most artistic wood-carving. 

 One of the representations was a large 

 fish, and in this connection he mentions 

 that one house contained a number of 

 fish bones which were evidently the re- 

 mains of fish exactly similar to those 

 found today in the Kara-Koshun Lake 

 to the south. These facts Dr. Sven 

 Hedin considers important as strength- 

 ening his claim to have found a lake 

 bed which was actually filled not so 

 many years ago, and which is the true 

 site of the Lob Nor of the ancients. In 

 the temple Dr. Hedin further found a 

 Buddha, carved in wood ; and he also 

 mentions as one of his ' ' finds ' ' a piece 

 of wood which he describes as being 

 about half the size of the sheet of note- 

 paper he was writing on, on which there 

 was writing in Tibetan characters. In 

 one of the Chinese letters, to which ref- 

 erence has already been made, the place 

 is called Lo-lan, and there is also men- 

 tion of the great road which it will be 

 remembered Dr. Sven Hedin found run- 

 ning along the northern shore of the 

 lake bed, which is said to join Do-lan 

 to Sa-dscheo. Dr. Hedin brought away 

 with him specimens of the various kinds 

 of wood-carving, and students in Europe 

 will eagerly await the sight of these as 

 well as of the photographs of the ruins 

 which Dr. Hedin had developed just 

 before writing and of which he speaks 

 in the most enthusiastic terms. 



Of the full importance of his discov- 

 eries among the ruins it is, he says, im- 

 possible to give at present any adequate 

 idea, but he states that he has gathered 

 together materials for a bulky volume 

 on the Dob Nor problem alone. He is 

 particularly pleased that, on leaving the 

 ruins, he was able to take observations 

 which have enabled him to draw the 

 ' ' leveling ' ' line between the northern 

 shore of the ancient lake bed and the 

 northern shore of Lake Kara-Koshun, 

 or, in other words, to ascertain the varia- 

 tions in level between these two points. 

 These observations, he is convinced, 

 have aiforded him the best argument 

 he could possibly have to show that he 

 has found the true solution of the Dob . 

 Nor problem. He found that the ruins 

 on the northern shore of the ancient 

 lake bed were situated at a level 2,272 

 meters higher than that of the surface of 

 Lake Kara-Koshun, but that the lowest 

 point of the lake bed lay about as much 

 below the same surface. Between the 

 lake bed and the lake the desert rises to 

 a point somewhat higher than the ruins. 

 Dr. Sven Hedin states that his observa- 

 tions will enable him to determine not 

 only the surface dimensions of the old 

 lake bed, but also the lines of depth. 

 It has just been mentioned that the 

 lower half of the ancient lake bed is 

 lower than the surface of the Kara- 

 Koshun Lake, and Dr. Hedin reports 

 that the water in the latter is now find- 

 ing a passage to the old basin. When 

 Dr. Hedin was making his explorations 

 in this part the waters of the present 

 lake were spreading north so rapidly 

 that it was unsafe for the travelers to 

 camp on the shore. 



At the date of the letter in which he 

 described these interesting researches 

 (April 23 of this year). Dr. Sven Hedin 

 was at Chaklik, which he had reached 

 only a few days earlier. He was greatly 

 surprised to learn from the letters he 

 found awaiting him about the troubles 

 in China (he himself had been traveling 



