Beyond the stony margin lying next to the mountains, and as it appears to me distinctly defining the shore-line of an ancient sea, lies the boundless expanse of the Tarim and Lob-nor deserts. Here the soil is loose saline loam or drift-sand remarkable for the absence of organic life. The Lob-nor desert is indeed the wildest and most barren of all the deserts I have seen, surpassing in this respect even that of Ala-shan.[1] But before proceeding to a more detailed description of these places, I will briefly sketch the hydrography of the Lower Tarim.
As already stated, on our road from Korla to the south we had to cross two streams of considerable size—the Koncheh-daria[2] and Inchikeh-daria. The first of these flows out of Lake Bagarash, forces its way through the last spur of the Tian Shan near Korla, and after taking a slight bend to the south, flows in a south-easterly direction, and falls into the Kiok-ala-daria, an arm of the Tarim. Owing to the velocity of their current and the loose clay soil through which they pass, the Koncheh-daria as well as the Tarim and all its arms and tributaries have worn for themselves deep trough-like channels. The width of the Koncheh-daria where we crossed it for the second
