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0812 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 / Page 812 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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544   AN ANCIENT FRONTIER   CH. XLIX

cohesion in spite of the coarse material full of gravel and

small stones. The reed bundles, of about the same

thickness, were strongly tied, and with their neatly cut

stacks and careful anchoring resembled rows of fascines.

The average thickness of the wall was between eight and

nine feet.

The wall farther east had become eroded in many

places. Yet the remnants of the reed layers could be

traced in the sandy, scrub-covered depression to within a

quarter of a mile of the next tower. This proved of

similar construction to the last, though more injured. A

special feature here were vertical pieces of Toghrak set

into the brickwork to strengthen the corners, and held at

short intervals by ropes of twisted reeds which again were

embedded in the masonry. The whole, like the materials

used in the wall, seemed to tell plainly how little the

surrounding physical conditions and the resources of this

desert ground had changed since the line of towers was

erected. Incidentally light was thrown on the purpose of

the latter when I noticed on the southern face a line of

rough footholds spared from the masonry, as if to assist a

person climbing to the top by means of a rope. Mani-

festly the small space on the top was meant to be occupied

by a man or two for watching and signalling.

Beyond this tower the continuation of the wall seemed

to be lost completely. Crossing the bare gravel plateau to

the north-east, we then regained the caravan track leading

eastwards in the direction of the next tower which now

came in view far away. We had followed the track for

scarcely more than a mile when the Surveyor's keen eye

caught a slight swelling of the gravel soil running parallel

to the route, and half-petrified reeds cropping out from its

side and top. By merely scraping the surface I made sure

that we were moving once more by the line of the old wall,

the reeds clearly belonging to the foot layers of a portion

now almost completely eroded.

Farther on the almost imperceptible swelling grew into

a perfectly straight ridge, six to eight feet high, where the

extant wall lay covered under heaped-up gravel and drift

sand. At a point about three miles distant from the last