only 338 miles from Ilchi to Lob.  Mr. Shaw, as we have seen, gives us a little more, but it is only even then 380.  Polo unfortunately omits his usual estimate for the extent of the “Province of Charchan,” so he affords us no complete datum.  But his distance between Charchan and Lob agrees fairly, as we have seen, with that both of Johnson and of Shaw, and the elbow on the road from Kiria to Charchan (supra, p. 192) necessitates our still further abridging the longitude between Khotan and Lop. (See Shaw’s remarks in Proc.  R. G. S. XVI. 243.)

[This desert was known in China of old by the name of Lew-sha, i.e.  “Quicksand,” or literally, “Flowing sands.” (Palladius, Jour.  N. China B. R. As.  Soc. N.S.  X. 1875, p. 4.)

A most interesting problem is connected with the situation of Lob-nor which led to some controversy between Baron von Richthofen and Prjevalsky.  The latter placed the lake one degree more to the south than the Chinese did, and found that its water was sweet.  Richthofen agreed with the Chinese Topographers and wrote in a letter to Sir Henry Yule:  “I send you two tracings; one of them is a true copy of the Chinese map, the other is made from a sketch which I constructed to-day, and on which I tried to put down the Chinese Topography together with that of Prjevalsky.  It appears evident—­(1) That Prjevalsky travelled by the ancient road to a point south of the true Lop-noor; (2) that long before he reached this point he found the river courses quite different from what they had been formerly; and (3) that following one of the new rivers which flows due south by a new road, he reached the two sweet-water lakes, one of which answers to the ancient Khas-omo.  I use the word ‘new’ merely by way of comparison with the state of things in Kien-long’s time, when the map was made.  It appears that the Chinese map shows the Khas Lake too far north to cover the Kara-Koshun.  The bifurcation of the roads south of the lake nearly resembles that which is marked by Prjevalsky.” (Preface of E. D. Morgan’s transl. of From Kulja across the Tian Shan to Lob-nor, by Colonel N. Prjevalsky, London, 1879, p. iv.) In this same volume Baron von Richthofen’s remarks are given (pp. 135-159, with a map, p. 144), showing comparison between Chinese and Prjevalsky’s Geography from tracings by Baron von Richthofen and (pp. 160-165) a translation of Prjevalsky’s replies to the Baron’s criticisms.

Now the Swedish traveller, Dr. Sven Hedin, claims to have settled this knotty point.  Going from Korla, south-west of Kara-shahr, by a road at the foot of the Kurugh-tagh and between these mountains and the Koncheh Daria, he discovered the ruins of two fortresses, and a series of milestones (potais).  These tall pyramids of clay and wood, indicating distances in lis show the existence at an ancient period of a road with a large traffic between Korla and an unknown place to the south-east, probably on the shores