国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

visited the nest at least once a day to persuade ourselves that the baby bird had come to no harm and to watch it growing in body and soul.

Scarcely a day went by without our seeing a herd of antelopes in the vicinity. One day Dr HAUDE and a couple of the others went bathing in the broadest part of the brook. After the bathe they lay down in the grass, as usual, to bask in the sun. A herd of antelopes approached. They were remarkably inquisitive and fearless; they must have sensed that the men were unarmed. A buck bounded up and sniffed the air, while some lusty little kids gambolled up to within four yards of the men.

NORIN'S TOPOGRAPHICAL, WORK

NoRIN now planned a more thorough mapping of the route to the Edsen-gol than we had at first intended. Our original plan had been to make the simple map of our actual marching route that I was of old in the habit of making myself, while NORIN and YUAN were to map certain tracts in addition, according as they found time, and depending on the geological or archaeological importance of the tracts in question. If this plan had been followed, the map of our route would on the whole have been little more than a line, with here and there slight extensions to either side.

Now, however, NORIN wished to triangulate the whole route to the Edsen-gol. We should thus have a continuous system of triangles, the angles of which would be measured with the theodolite. The sides of these triangles would measure between ten and fifteen kilometers. The main axis of the whole system of triangles would follow the caravan-route. The work of measuring the triangles was entrusted to Major HEYDER.

NoxiN, meanwhile, was to fill in the region inside the triangle system with topographical detail, taking his bearings from the fixed points. MASSENBACH was to assist him in this by charting the courses of streams and valleys by pacing. Both HEYDER and MASSENBACH had some topographical training as officers.

As usual, we conferred with our Chinese colleagues on the subject of this mapping project, and were met with the greatest sympathy and interest. NORIN was now obliged to travel with his own little caravan, independently of the main force. While this column of NOIUN's was to keep about twenty kilometers to the north of the main caravan, the Chinese suggested setting up a topographical party of their own, which would travel southwards of the main caravan at a distance of about ten kilometers.

In this way we moved in three more or less parallel columns, the north party being under NORIN'S command, while the middle and south columns were led by myself and YUAN respectively.

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