国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

Mao-mei and Chin-t'a who knew vaguely of the existence of this ' wall ' were prepared to attribute
to it, as I learnt, the respectable antiquity of Chin times (A.D. 265–419).

Start
towards
Mou-wo. As soon as we had passed into the desolate region of barren foot-hills our ' guide ' managed to
lose the cart-track which was to lead us to Mou-wo and, once arrived on a wide gravel Sai beyond
the outermost chain of hills, completely lost his bearings. It was but the first display of his and
his fellow's lamentably inadequate recollection of the ground before us. Repeated again and again
in the course of the next marches it soon taught us to trust mainly to the guidance of the faint
caravan tracks traceable and to such knowledge as our plane-table gave us of the approximate
direction to be followed towards our previously determined goal. On that first march after a great
detour duly represented in the map, we managed to regain the cart-track. By it we were guided to
the well of Yeh-ma-ching, ' the well of the wild horse ', situated in a wide shallow valley ascending
towards what evidently was a continuation of the hill range which we had sighted from Mao-mei
trending away to the north-west. I am disposed to recognize in it a part of the southernmost
main chain of the Pei-shan, corresponding to the last range which Professor Futterer coming
from the north crossed on his way to the Su-lo-ho and which his account describes as the fifth.¹
The geological specimens that I secured on our passage through it may help hereafter to check the
morphological relation suggested by a comparison of our map and Professor Futterer's route
sketch. Like the other specimens collected along our route across the crumbling desert ranges
farther on towards the Karlik-tāgh, they are still undergoing examination by Professor W. J. Sollas
of Oxford.

Crossing of
southern-
most hill
range. On September 6th the track that we followed continued to ascend the valley to the north-west
between rounded hills, all covered with dark detritus (Fig. 283). We passed two more wells, but
on approaching what was manifestly the divide of the range, at an elevation of approximately
5,700 feet, we lost the track completely on ground that was much cut up by shallow drainage beds.
Cairns visible on almost all the surrounding hillocks only helped to add to our ' guide's ' confusion.
In a well-defined line of reddish hills, however, that could be seen to the north stretching from east
to west, he recognized the range along which, as he believed, led the direct route from Mao-mei to
Mou-wo. He called it Chin-k'ou-tzŭ and talked of gold-pits once worked in it. In the valley about
two miles wide into which we descended north-westwards there was plentiful grazing for the camels.
But the well at which we halted proved dry, and those we sunk in the bed near by also failed to
strike water. The straying of our camels and ponies during the night added to the discomfort
of a halt passed without water or food. But by daybreak the camel-men in search of the fugitives
came upon the track of Lāl Singh's party beyond the low hills to the north. The trace left by his
cyclometer rendered it unmistakable. On descending to it we passed a well only five feet deep hold-
ing ample water. Then the old cart-track which Lāl Singh had followed took us westwards along
the foot of reddish hills across a low saddle to a valley draining westwards to the open basin of
Mou-wo (Map No. 42. B. 3).

Coal-pits of
Mou-wo. There we found Lāl Singh duly encamped by the side of one of the two wells dug in the dry
bed passing below the coal-pits. Two or three houses half in ruins marked the quarters of the
people from Chin-t'a and Mao-mei who until recent years used to come here for short periods in
the winter to gather coal from the shallow diggings. Of this coal specimens were secured. A
hillock overlooking the dreary plain is crowned with a little shrine. The pits extend irregularly
for about a mile to the west of the stream-bed and seem to be worked to a depth of 15 to 17 feet from
the surface, in narrow ditches. The information obtained from Lāl Singh showed that the route over
which he had reached Mao-mei led by a long march on the first day over waterless Sai to a rain-fed