Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 385 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0385	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

under my instructions from L.F.⁷ The ancient refuse he had noted on L.I., together with small
relics picked up near it, clearly indicated occupation of that Mesa during the historical period.
Its position on the plane-table agreed with that north-easterly direction which the position of L.C.,
L.E. and L.F. relative to the Lou-lan station had led me to conjecture as the probable line of the
old Chinese route. So I decided to march straight to it. The experience already gained of the
trials confronting our camels made me doubly anxious to avoid any needless moves which would
cause loss of time and delay in carrying out our main task. Afrāz-gul's report had shown me that
the graves of L.Q. were evidently of the same type as those explored at L.F. but less well preserved,
and this made me less reluctant to forgo on this occasion a visit to L.Q., which meant saving
a day. Its graves were duly explored a year later.⁷ᵃ
As we moved towards the Mesa the ground became more sandy and dead tamarisks increas- Enforced
ingly frequent on low Yārdangs. But the camels in spite of the improved going lagged sadly behind. halt at
When the convoy had at last come up at L.I., I learned that one camel had completely broken L.I.
down and had finally been left behind after removal of its load. Hassan Ākhūn, who had had charge
of the camels on all my three journeys and whose experience made him more than ever the main
prop of my transport arrangements on this difficult desert voyage,⁸ earnestly urged the need of
an immediate halt. He and the other men would require the rest of the day and the night to 're-sole'
the camels, whose feet had developed cracks and sores on the hard salt-encrusted ground. If we
pitched camp at the foot of the Mesa he would also have the chance, which he eagerly pleaded for,
of bringing in the abandoned camel which I had already felt obliged to order to be shot. As the
event proved, I was not to regret this enforced halt.
A rapid examination of the three Mesas, lying close together near our Camp C. c and jointly Refuse
marked L.I. on the map (No. 32. A. 3), produced convincing evidence that they had been occupied found on
at the time when Chinese traffic was passing through Lou-lan, and perhaps even before. The L.I.
Mesas, rising to about sixty feet in height, showed, indeed, no structural remains. But below the
top of the northernmost Mesa abundant refuse of reed-straw mixed with cow-dung was discovered
on sheltered portions of the slopes. Similar refuse, together with several pieces of simple reed
matting, was also found in a small Nullah dividing the little plateau into two distinct portions.
Layers of refuse were likewise found on the top of another of these Mesas lying close by to the south-
east, while on its north-west slope we picked up many ragged fragments of a sheepskin lined with
a coarse woollen fabric of 'open' weave. Everything pointed to these Mesas having once served
as a camping-place for indigenous herdsmen, perhaps only periodically during summer seasons
when the elevation of their tops must have made them welcome places of refuge from the plague of
insects that infest the ground near the terminal marshes. We, too, in May 1907 had been glad
to seek comparative safety from these pests on similar elevated ground near the point where the
westernmost end of the Limes flanks the edge of the terminal basin of the Su-lo-ho.⁹
That such periodical occupation must have extended into historical times and, perhaps, until Finds on
the final abandonment of Lou-lan, was proved by the glass bead, L.I. 013, which was picked up ground
under my eyes at the foot of the northernmost Mesa, by the side of a well-worked stone arrow-head, near L.I.
L.I. 012 (Pl. XXII), evidently Neolithic. Afrāz-gul, when first visiting these Mesas on February 16th
with some men, had searched the ground carefully and had then found some bronze fragments,
including those of a bronze javelin, L.I. 05 (Pl. XXIII), besides several worked stones, among them
the jade celt, L.I. 015 (Pl. XXII), and fragments of coarse decorated pottery, L.I. 01–5 (Pl. XXIII,

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