Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 586 ページ（白黒高解像度画像）

0586	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

Want of
water in
spring.

Below that oasis we had found in May the bed of the Etsin-gol quite dry, and this condition
was said to be quite normal for the season. Farther down, the eastern main branch of the delta, the
Ikhe-gol, had, as already stated above, received no water for three years past even during the
summer floods. On our return journey up this river branch, it was not until June 12th that we came
upon the first flow of water in it at Bahān-durwuljin (Map No. 45. B. 2), filling scarcely one-fifteenth
of the width of the bed with a volume of less than 200 cubic feet per second. Yet even this first
harbinger of the summer flood was hailed by the Mongols with delight as having come about
a month sooner than it had for years past in any of the branches of the delta. At Khara-khoto,
as everywhere else in this region where cultivation depends on irrigation, an adequate supply of
canal-water during the spring must have been absolutely essential for all crops. No such supply
could be secured nowadays anywhere in the Etsin-gol delta. Nor is it possible to assume that this
need of moisture during spring could have been supplied in earlier times by local precipitation ;
for in that case the ruins of Khara-khoto and their antiques would certainly not have come down
to us in such excellent preservation.

Volume of
Etsin-gol
reduced
since Middle
Ages.

Thus the conclusion appears justified that the volume of water reaching the Etsin-gol delta
during spring has undergone considerable diminution since late mediaeval times. What the cause
of this diminution may be is a question that need not be considered here.¹³ᶜ So much, however, should
be noted, that it cannot be attributed to an increased demand for irrigation water in the oases
higher up the river ; for we know that cultivation in these oases is still far from having recovered
all the ground it had lost through the protracted devastations of the Tungan rebellion and the
consequent depopulation. Nor is it possible to suppose that, at the period when Khara-khoto was
inhabited and agriculture carried on in its vicinity, the amount of water lost to the rivers of Kan-chou
and Su-chou through irrigation was less than it is in our times ; for Marco Polo speaks of Campichu,
i.e. Kan-chou, as a 'very great and noble' city, 'the capital and place of government of the whole
province of Tangut', and mentions 'numerous towns and villages', also in the province of
Sukchur (Su-chou).¹⁴

Return to
Ikhe-gol.

The rapidly increasing heat had made work at Khara-khoto very trying both for the men
and for the camels, upon which we depended for the transport of water. So I was glad when,
our work at the site being completed and Lāl Singh having returned from his survey towards the
terminal lake basin, I was able on June 5th to move my camp back to Tsondul on the Ikhe-gol
and there to arrange for our journey south to the foot of the Nan-shan. It was high time to let
our hard-worked camels depart for their much-needed summer holiday, and fortunately it was
possible to send them for this purpose to a cooler place, the Kungurche hills, to the east of the
terminal basin of the Etsin-gol. I had previously heard of these hills at Mao-mei, as the summer
grazing ground to which the large herds of camels owned there are regularly sent. As the locality
was described as lying on the very border of independent Mongol territory, I decided to send
Surveyor Muḥammad Yāqūb with the camels, partly for the sake of additional safety and partly
in the hope of his eventually being able to extend survey work over practically unexplored ground
to the north-east.

Surveyor
sent to
Kungurche
hills.

This hope remained unfulfilled ; for when the broad valley of Kungurche (Map No. 47.
A, B. 2) was reached after five marches from the Torgut chief's standing camp, the hills overlooking
it from the north and east were found to be closely guarded by Mongol pickets, who would not
permit the Surveyor to advance into independent Mongolian territory. Plucky enough in person,
but lacking my old surveying companion Lāl Singh's indefatigable energy and resourcefulness,

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