Two days later I was in the middle of the Taklamakan desert. I had driven there, along a new road that cuts past a major landmark, the low lying ridge of the Mazartag mountains that come to an abrupt end at the Hetian river. There’s a ruined Tibetan fort on the top of the mountains’ end, overlooking the river. It dates from the 18th century when the Tibetan empire stretched northwards to the Tianshan mountains. Below the fort was the site of a resupply point from the expedition. I wanted to show my children.…
We had an eventful drive through a blinding sandstorm, a couple of police checkpoints, and then along a sandy track off the main road that was too much for the car. We dug it out. Then the rain began—rain, in the desert. We set up camp and cooked supper. The wind had died to nothing. It was a beautiful evening. In the west the Mazartag ridge glowed red in the setting sun.
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
She had weedy hair of that vague color which is neither brown nor blond, that hasn't enough life in it to be ginger, and isn't clean enough to be gray.
In some parts of South America the geology is as well known as in parts of North America, but in other geophysically important areas much remains to be done
