THE LOP-NOR PROBLEM 
871 
The remaining portion of the Koncheh-daria flows east- 
south-east under the name of the Ilek (the River). We 
travelled along the left bank of this stream for three days, 
and then on April 4th, to my great satisfaction, I found 
that, as the Chinese represented, and as Von Richthofen 
believed, it does fall into a long, narrow lake, so long that 
for three days more we were able to travel along its eastern 
shore. The lake is however now almost completely over- 
grown with kamish (reeds), although a few years ago the 
Lop-men, or native inhabitants of the region, used to fish 
there. These people have different names for different 
parts of the lake, and usually divide it into four basins, 
Avullu-koll, Kara-koll, Tayek-koll, and Arka-kcill. But 
in reality there is only one lake, almost divided in two 
or three places by out-jutting peninsulas. 
The lake, like the Lop-nor of the Chinese maps, was 
situated approximately in 40° 30' N. lat. The Chinese 
geographers of the present day still call the legion 
between Tikkenlik and Arghan by the name of Lop-nor, 
a name which is absolutely unknown in the neighbour- 
hood of the lake discovered by Przhevalsky. That lake 
embraces two basins, known as Kara-buran and Rara- 
koshun. The name Lop is given by the Lop-men and 
all the inhabitants of East Turkestan — in so far as they 
know anything about it at all— to the entire region which 
stretches all the way from the confluence of the Ughen- 
daria and the Tarim to Charkhlik. 
In one respect there was a discrepancy. The lake which 
I discovered stretched from north to south, whereas the 
Lop-nor of the Chinese maps stretched from east to west. 
But for this divergence, at first sight so surprising, there is 
a perfectly natural explanation. 1 11 the first place, it must 
be steadily borne in mind, that the whole of the Lop 
region lies at almost the same horizontal level, so that even 
a slight change of relative niveau is capable of affecting 
more or less seriously the entire hydrographical disposition 
of the locality. Now there are two agencies constantly 
operating to bring about changes of this nature namely, 
the prevailing winds and the sedimentary deposits of the 
