This Mass Of
Water Is Divided Up By The Natives Into Avullu Kul, Kara Kul, Tayek Kul,
And Arka Kul, Which Are Actually Almost Filled Up With Reeds.
Dr. Sven
Hedin afterwards visited the Lob-nor of Prjevalsky, and reached its
western extremity, the Kara-buran (black storm) on the 17th April.
In
1885, Prjevalsky had found the Lob-nor an immense lake; four years later
Prince Henri d'Orleans saw it greatly reduced in size, and Dr. Sven Hedin
discovered but pools of water. In the meantime, since 1885, the northern
(Chinese) Lob-nor has gradually filled up, so the lake is somewhat
vagrant. Dr. Sven Hedin says that from his observations he can assert that
Prjevalsky's lake is of recent formation.
So Marco Polo's Lob-nor should be the northern or Chinese lake.
Another proof of this given by Dr. Sven Hedin is that the Chinese give the
name of Lob to the region between Arghan and Tikkenlik, unknown in the
country of the southern lake. The existence of two lakes shows what a
quantity of water from the Thian Shan, the Eastern Pamir, and Northern
Tibet flows into the basin of the Tarim. The Russian Lieutenant K. P.
Kozlov has tried since to prove that the Chinese Lob-nor is the Kara-
Koshun (Black district), which is a second lake formed by the Tarim, which
discharges into and issues from the lake Kara-buran. Kozlov's arguments
are published in the Isvestia of the Russian Geographical Society, and
in a separate pamphlet. The Geog. Jour. (June, 1898, pp. 652-658)
contains The Lob-nor Controversy, a full statement of the case,
summarising Kozlov's pamphlet. Among the documents relating to the
controversy, Kozlov "quotes passages from the Chinese work Si-yui-shui-
dao-tsi, published in 1823, relative to the region, and gives a reduced
copy of the Chinese Map published by Dr. Georg Wegener in 1863, upon which
map Richthofen and Sven Hedin based their arguments." Kozlov's final
conclusions (Geog. Jour. l.c. pp. 657-658) are the following: "The
Koncheh-daria, since very remote times till the present day, has moved a
long way. The spot Gherelgan may be taken as a spot of relative permanence
of its bed, while the basis of its delta is a line traced from the
farthest northern border of the area of salt clays surrounding the Lob-nor
to the Tarim. At a later period the Koncheh-daria mostly influenced the
lower Tarim, and each time a change occurred in the latter's discharge,
the Koncheh took a more westward course, to the detriment of its old
eastern branch (Ilek). Always following the gradually receding humidity,
the vegetable life changed too, while moving sands were taking its place,
conquering more and more ground for the desert, and marking their conquest
by remains of old shore-lines....
"The facts noticed by Sven Hedin have thus another meaning - the desert to
the east of the lakes, which he discovered, was formed, not by Lob-nor,
which is situated 1 deg.
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