Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 513 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0513	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

we found traces of old canals and abandoned cultivation for about two miles beyond the present
limit of the oasis. But even thus it seems to me very unlikely that the importance of the oasis could
ever have been great enough either to divert to itself traffic from the shorter and more convenient
high road passing south of the range or in itself to justify the inclusion of Hua-hai-tzŭ within the
marches protected by the Han Limes. Accordingly, when our search had definitely shown that
the line followed by the border wall passed right across the depression from the west to the east,
there remained the puzzling question as to why this line had been adopted by Han Wu-ti's
' Wardens of the Marches ' instead of the far more easily guarded natural line of defence which
the rugged range to the south appeared so conveniently to offer.¹⁸

The answer to this question was found only when subsequent explorations along the Pei-ta-ho Name
revealed the great extension to the north of the territory over which, under the great Han Emperor, Ying-p'an
a firm Chinese hold was established. But two points of antiquarian interest had already become accounted
clear before that discovery. One was that the alternative name of Ying-p'an 營盤, ' the for.
military encampment ', borne by the little oasis, may well be derived from the part which it must
have played in the border defence scheme of Han times. Reference to the map will show that
it would have been quite impossible, without a garrison placed there, effectively to guard the Limes
along a line which here stretched for fully ninety miles across absolute desert. On the other hand,
it appears unlikely that this outlying isolated oasis could have been garrisoned with any advantage
in later times, when the defensive line on the north-western marches of Kan-su was withdrawn
to the vicinity of Su-chou, as it certainly was during the Ming period and right down to the Man-chu
conquest of Hsin-chiang. However, the question of the name Ying-p'an is one which could
definitely be decided only by reference to Chinese historical records inaccessible to me.

Another point of interest is the proof, afforded by the line that the wall follows north of Ying- Large lake
p'an, that this ground was not covered by a large lake either in Han times or later, as might have represented
been concluded from the representation which the Chinese ' Wu-ch'ang map ' gives of this area. in Chinese
Professor Futterer had already called attention to the discrepancy between this Chinese carto- map.
graphical representation and the actual topographical facts,¹⁹ and the evidence afforded by the
remains of the Limes indicates a similar discrepancy as regards a much earlier period. This
discrepancy deserves particular notice in view of the extensive use which has been made of data
derived solely from that product of Chinese seventeenth-century cartography for the discussion
of the so-called ' Lop-nör problem ' and similar questions.

Section IV.—THE LIMES TRACED EAST OF HUA-HAI-TZŬ

On the morning of April 28th we set out from our camp near the springs of Hsiao-ch'üan-tzŭ, March to
and after proceeding about three miles across the breadth of the oasis, marched ESE. by the caravan Ko-ta-
track leading towards Su-chou. Traces of old canals and cultivation were met with over a distance ch'üan-tzŭ.
of two miles or so from the edge of the oasis. Beyond this, for about ten miles, the route lay across
a flat clayey plain where scrub was abundant and scattered tamarisk-cones rose to a height of eight

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