these eminences as ` Tims,' the designation current in these parts for mounds formed by ancient structures. So I set off straight to the mound on the eastern horizon, and when I arrived there after a three miles' canter found to my satisfaction that I had got to the remains of a Stupa. The ravages of time had reduced it to a shapeless little hill. But the masonry of sun-dried bricks of which it was formed, displayed itself plainly at several points below the covering crust of earth. Immediately to the S.W. of the mound I could trace in low banks rising above the level of the surrounding country the remains of a great quadrangle, measuring 260 by 170 feet, undoubtedly the monastery once attached to the Stupa.
I had scarcely began a rough survey of the site when a wind of increasing violence rose from the north. The mountains that were at first visible in the distance soon disappeared in the thick haze of dust, and with them too the mounds that had been previously pointed out to me. But my guides knew their position well and set off without hesitation when our work at Topa Tim (" the Sand Mound") was finished and I wished to proceed to the ` Tims ' northward. The four miles' ride in the face of a sandstorm was not pleasant in itself', but revealed an interesting topographical fact. Unexpectedly I came upon a deep-cut river-bed, now almost completely dry, but showing by its great breadth, of some 500 feet, that it must once have carried a considerable quantity of water. My guides assured me that only after exceptionally heavy rain in the mountains does this ravine now contain any water. It must have been different in earlier times, for it is evident that the water supply of the ancient settlement was derived from it.
There was another interesting discovery awaiting me at the end of the ride. As the mounds I was bound for emerged from the thick yellow haze, I saw to my surprise that one of them was a comparatively well preserved Stupa, closely re-
11
IIIF Color HighRes
