Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 489 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0489	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

hsien and Su-chou may at one time have been occupied by a 'Gate' station corresponding to
the ancient *Yü-mên* or 'Jade Gate' and to the modern Chia-yü-kuan.¹⁰ In that hypothesis the
position chosen for the ruined temple might, perhaps, be accounted for by lingering local worship
such as we have found elsewhere clinging tenaciously to 'Gate' sites in the Limes.¹¹ More light
would perhaps be thrown on the question if it became possible to determine the exact location of
*Chin-ch'ang* 晉昌. A passage of the T'ang Annals mentions this place as occupied by the frontier
station of Yü-mên kuan in A.D. 610, and Chinese antiquarians look for it to the east of An-hsi.¹²

Meanwhile I must confine myself to pointing out the strategic importance of the Wan-shan-tzŭ
defile for the defence of the high road leading from Kan-su to An-hsi and thence to Hāmi. This is
clearly brought out by the fact that a large Chinese garrison had been stationed at Bulungir or
Pu-lung-chi, some ten miles to the east of it (Map No. 40. B. 4), in the time of the Emperor K'ang-
hsi and Ch'ien-lung, when the marches of Kan-su had to be guarded against Dzungar inroads
and preparations had to be made for the conquest from them of the 'New Dominion'.¹³ Troops,
placed there in the centre of several small cultivated areas, were in a convenient position to guard
both the Wan-shan-tzŭ defile and the line of the Su-lo-ho where it might be approached from the
north by turning the former.

On resuming our eastward march on the right bank of the river we came, after proceeding
less than half a mile from Camp 122, upon the line of the Limes where it passes between two low
ridges of much-decayed rock, forming the south-eastern extremity of the spur bearing the tower
T. XL. c. The line for a distance of about 120 yards could be traced here in the shape of a double
embankment covered with stones and detritus. The southern embankment or mound had a width
of about 24 feet at the base and a height of 10 feet. The bank to the north was less wide and
rose only to 5 or 6 feet, the distance between the centre lines of the summits of the mounds being
some 44 feet. Beyond that stretch the line was continued for another 80 yards or so by a double
*agger*. Here layers of tamarisk branches cropped out on both sides and the reduced width of the
*agger* on the south, only 12 feet, indicated a different method of construction. The broken nature
of the ground may account for the fact that the line was protected at this point by a double embank-
ment or *agger*.

A short distance farther on the outcrop of rock disappeared, and all trace of the line was lost
in a belt of soft alluvial loess fringing the bed of the river and about half a mile wide. Deep trenches
fissured the ground in a direction parallel to the river and seemed to be due to wind-erosion. After
having covered about three miles we passed into a belt evidently liable to occasional inundation and
covered with luxuriant reeds and bushes. Here, too, no remains of the Limes line were to be seen,
but five miles farther on we came upon the ruin of a tower; it stood on a clay terrace overlooking
the wide depression of the river-bed, partly covered with thickets of Toghraks and bushes.

This tower, T. XLI. a, had already been sighted by me in September, 1907, from the road west
of Bulungir, and had actually been visited some days later by Lāl Singh on a reconnaissance
trip made under my instructions from An-hsi. But it was only now possible to make certain that
it marked a watch-post on the ancient Limes of Han times. It was built of layers of stamped clay
and measured about 20 feet square at its base. The northern face of the tower had fallen and the
remaining portion had split into two parts. Yet in spite of this far-advanced decay the antiquity
of the ruin was quickly established. Potsherds of the dark-grey mat-marked Han type covered
the bare clay around, and definite confirmation was supplied by the fragment of a broad wooden

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