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0311 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 / Page 311 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000234
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CHAP. xvl.] WASHING FOR GOLD REMAINS   259

river deposit. The larger supply of water needed for. this purpose caused the Yotkan canal to cut its bed deeper and deeper and to form the extant Yar, the bottom of which is from- twenty to thirty feet below the ground level. Finally the canal had to be diverted to a higher level, but springs came to the surface at the bottom of the ravine, and these account for the swampy condition of the excavated area. In the recollection of old villagers the land of Yotkan was everywhere a level flat ; . there were no springs or swampy ground-nor any knowledge or tradition of the " old city " below.

Former travellers, who paid to Yotkan only a flying visit, have spoken of " the frightful ravages in the soil " and attributed them to some extraordinary flood catastrophes of which, it is true, they were unable to trace any recollection. But in reality the great extent of the excavated area which forms, as my careful survey showed, an irregular oblong of more than half a square mile, is almost exclusively due to systematic digging and washing for gold, as it still continues to this day on the north and west side. The banks there are yielding a small but , " paying " quantity of gold, and in recent years antiques, such as ornamented fragments of pottery, engraved stones, and coins have come to be counted as a kind of secondary products. The gold is usually found in tiny flakes of leaf-gold, of which I was able to secure samples. It is easily distinguished by the villagers from the gold-dust (` kepek-altün ') washed from the river-beds. No gold coins or solid 'ornaments of gold and silver are admitted to have been found.. But I have my doubts on this point, as the villagers or miners would have reason to be reticent about such finds. In any case it is acknowledged that during the first years and near the original spot the workings yielded rich quantities of gold. T myself subsequently purchased at Yotkan a. tiny figure of solid gold of excellent workmanship, representing a monkey, that had been found during the year's washings. Larger articles of this kind are doubtless melted down speedily after discovery.

It seems at first difficult to account for the prevalence of gold in