of the Chinese Lob-nor.  Prjevalsky, who passed between the Lower Tarim and the Koncheh Daria, could not see a lake or the remains of a lake to the east of this river.  The Koncheh Daria expands into a marshy basin, the Malta Kul, from which it divides into two branches, the Kuntiekkich Tarim (East River) and the Ilek (river) to the E.S.E.  Dr. Sven Hedin, after following the course of the Ilek for three days (4th April, 1896) found a large sheet of water in the valley at the very place marked by the Chinese Topographers and Richthofen for the Lob-nor.  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....