292 



The National Geographic Magazine 



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Lop-Nor. Today the lake is merely a with huge reeds 12 or 15 feet high. Near 

 marsh, fed by the Tarim River, and filled the mouth of the river, where alone the 



water is fresh enough to 



g support life, the Lopliks 



3 have planted their vil- 



a lages of reeds. For- 



B merly, according to their 



■5 own account, they lived 



? wholly on fish and birds 



s caught in the open lanes 



~ and pools of the swamp, 



"^ where the fishermen still 



o paddle their canoes of 



^ hollowed poplar. They 



cannot go far to the 



east, for there the 



swamp grows more and 



more saline, until finally 



it merges into a great 



plain of salt, the, bed of 



2 the expanded lake of 



< former times. 



The old bed of Lop- 

 El Nor is one of the most 

 J absolute deserts in the 

 a world. In January, 1906, 

 H the writer explored this 

 5 hitherto unknown waste, 

 £ where even the hardy 

 2 natives never venture. 

 c For five • days the cara- 

 ts van stumbled wearily 

 Z over a sea of rock-salt 

 $ broken into huge poly- 

 o gons 10 or 12 feet in 

 ^ diameter, which had 

 buckled up around the 

 edges to a height of 

 from one to three feet. 

 It was like the choppiest 

 sort of sea frozen solid. 

 When we selected what 

 appeared to be soft 

 places in which to pitch 

 the tents, the iron tent 

 pegs bent double. When 

 we wanted to spread our 

 beds to sleep, it was 

 necessary to hew away 

 junks of salt with an 

 axe. For 60 miles north 

 and south and for nearly 





