for the correct phonetic spelling of local names along it to his map to be published in J.R.G.S., in December, 1902.  He says in his Prel.  Report, p. 10:  “The Wakhjir Pass, only some 12 miles to the south-west of Koek-toeroek, connects the Taghdumbash Pamir and the Sarikol Valleys with the head-waters of the Oxus.  So I was glad that the short halt, which was unavoidable for survey purposes, permitted me to move a light camp close to the summit of the Wakhjir Pass (circ. 16,200 feet).  On the following day, 2nd July, I visited the head of Ab-i-Panja Valley, near the great glaciers which Lord Curzon first demonstrated to be the true source of the River Oxus.  It was a strange sensation for me in this desolate mountain waste to know that I had reached at last the eastern threshold of that distant region, including Bactria and the Upper Oxus Valley, which as a field of exploration had attracted me long before I set foot in India.  Notwithstanding its great elevation, the Wakhjir Pass and its approaches both from west and east are comparatively easy.  Comparing the topographical facts with Hiuen-Tsiang’s account in the Si yu-ki, I am led to conclude that the route followed by the great Chinese Pilgrim, when travelling about A.D. 649 from Badakshan towards Khotan, through ‘the valley of Po-mi-lo (Pamir)’ into Sarikol, actually traversed this Pass.”

Dr. Stein adds in his notes to me that “Marco Polo’s description of the forty days’ journey to the E.N.E. of Vokhan as through tracts of wilderness can well be appreciated by any one who has passed through the Pamir Region, in the direction of the valleys W. and N. of Muztagh Ata.  After leaving Tashkurghan and Tagharma, where there is some precarious cultivation, there is no local produce to be obtained until the oasis of Tashmalik is reached in the open Kashgar plains.  In the narrow valley of the Yamanyar River (Gez Defile) there is scarcely any grazing; its appearance is far more desolate than that of the elevated Pamirs.”—­“Marco Polo’s praise (p. 181) of the gardens and vine-yards of Kashgar is well deserved; also the remark about the trading enterprise of its merchants still holds good, if judged by the standard of Chinese Turkestan.  Kashgar traders visit Khotan far more frequently than vice versa.  It is strange that no certain remains of Nestorian worship can be traced now.”—­“My impression [Dr. Stein’s] of the people of the Khotan oasis (p. 188) was that they are certainly a meeker and more docile race than e.g. the average ‘Kashgarlik’ or Yarkandi.  The very small number of the Chinese garrison of the districts Khotan and Keria (only about 200 men) bears out this impression.”

We may refer for the ancient sites, history, etc., of Khotan to the Preliminary Report of Dr. Stein and to his paper in the Geographical Journal for December, 1902, actually in the press.

5.—­NUMBER OF PAMIRS. (Vol. i. p. 176.)