Besides This Celebrated Example, Which Has
Been Described Also By The Emperor Baber, I Have Noted That Equally
Well-Known
One of the Jibal Nakus, or "Hill of the Bell," in the Sinai
Desert; Wadi Hamade, in the vicinity of
The same Desert; the
Jibal-ul-Thabul, or "Hill of the Drums," between Medina and Mecca; one on
the Island of Eigg, in the Hebrides, discovered by Hugh Miller; one among
the Medanos or Sandhills of Arequipa, described to me by Mr. C. Markham;
the Bramador or rumbling mountain of Tarapaca; one in hills between the
Ulba and the Irtish, in the vicinity of the Altai, called the Almanac
Hills, because the sounds are supposed to prognosticate weather-changes;
and a remarkable example near Kolberg on the shore of Pomerania. A Chinese
narrative of the 10th century mentions the phenomenon as known near
Kwachau, on the eastern border of the Lop Desert, under the name of the
"Singing Sands"; and Sir F. Goldsmid has recently made us acquainted with a
second Reg Ruwan, on a hill near the Perso-Afghan frontier, a little to
the north of Sistan. The place is frequented in pilgrimage. (See Cathay,
pp. ccxliv. 156, 398; Ritter, II. 204; Aus der Natur, Leipzig, No. 47
[of 1868], p. 752; Remusat, H. de Khotan, p. 74; Proc. R. G. S. XVII.
91.)
NOTE 3. - [We learn from Joseph Martin, quoted by Grenard, p. 170 (who met
this unfortunate French traveller at Khotan, on his way from Peking to
Marghelan, where he died), that from Shachau to Abdal, on the Lob-nor,
there are twelve days of desert, sandy only during the first two days,
stony afterwards. Occasionally a little grass is to be found for the
camels; water is to be found everywhere. M. Bonin went from Shachau to the
north-west towards the Kara-nor, then to the west, but lack of water
compelled him to go back to Shachau. Along this road, every five lis,
are to be found towers built with clay, and about 30 feet high, abandoned
by the Chinese, who do not seem to have kept a remembrance of them in the
country; this route seems to be a continuation of the Kan Suh Imperial
highway. A wall now destroyed connected these towers together. "There is
no doubt," writes M. Bonin, "that all these remains are those of the great
route, vainly sought after till now, which, under the Han Dynasty, ran to
China through Bactria. Pamir, Eastern Turkestan, the Desert of Gobi, and
Kan Suh: it is in part the route followed by Marco Polo, when he went from
Charchan to Shachau, by the city of Lob." The route of the Han has been
also looked for, more to the south, and it was believed that it was the
same as that of the Astyn Tagh, followed by Mr. Littledale in 1893, who
travelled one month from Abdal (Lob-nor) to Shachau; M. Bonin, who
explored also this route, and was twenty-three days from Shachau to
Lob-nor, says it could not be a commercial road.
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