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

of the ground could possibly have coped with the narrow boulder-strewn tracks, in places veritable
' Rafiks ', leading along the foot of these precipices.

Fig. 54 shows the first of these ' Rafiks ' encountered at Bakuchak, about six miles below Track over
Chimghan-aghzi, and here practicable for men on foot only. The construction of these galleries galleries
with rough tree trunks and brushwood shows a skill worthy of such cragsmen as those of Hunza and rocky
or Shighnān, and was scarcely to be expected among Kirghiz, averse as they are by the inherited ledges.
instinct of true nomads to the use of their legs. Yet it was at this point, so unlike the ground
familiar to the traveller in the Tārim basin, that I was first greeted by that sure sign of the vicinity
of the great desert plains, the dust haze appearing above the narrow gap of the gorge. After
repeatedly crossing the river, which the few riding ponies had great difficulty in fording, we came
to a place some three miles farther down where projecting rock coulisses seemed completely to
close the passage. Here, at Ara-sünde, the camels had to be unloaded before they could be taken
across the ' Rafiks ' and past the slippery boulders, which elsewhere made the track along the foot
of the cliffs even worse (Fig. 55). The narrow steep-edged terraces of the right bank for a mile
or two after this gave hope of less precarious progress. But they brought us to an impassable
precipice, and the crossing to the left bank proved too dangerous even for the brave camels. We
had accordingly to retrace our steps past the outfall of the Kara-tumshuk-jilga before the racing
torrent of the river, here about fifty yards wide and three feet and more in depth, could be forded.
After crossing steep talus fans and climbing rocky slopes, we were glad at last to reach by dusk
a point where a small patch of level ground, with a grove of wild poplars, allowed us to camp by
the river.

Our march on September 19th began with difficulties quite as great. Progress for the camels Defiles
was only possible by constantly crossing and recrossing the river. The ' Rafiks ' and rock ledges below
by which we descended on the left bank, after a mile or so of painfully slow progress, became Kaying-
impracticable even for laden ponies, and it became necessary to let them swim across held by ropes jilga.
attached to the camels. For us men on foot, the short stretch from opposite the mouth of the
Pitlik-jilga to Kaying-aghzi, scarcely more than three-quarters of a mile in direct distance, meant
a trying detour of over two hours : after scrambling along precipitous cliffs of slaty rock with
Rafiks as bad as those of Hunza, we had to climb in zigzags over very steep slopes of treacherous
shale to a height of some 800 feet above the river and to descend again to the latter over ground
equally steep. Beyond the mouth of the Kaying-jilga, which holds a considerable stream, the
river bed somewhat widens, and for about a mile and a half progress by the left bank seemed by
comparison easy. Then below the side valley of Terek-kichik, through which large grazing
grounds and a pass towards Yangi-hissār can be reached, bold spurs descend again in succession.
Their precipitous faces, rising at one point with almost vertical rock walls to a height probably
close on 3,000 feet, leave no track except in the river bed. The latter is, of course, quite impassable
during the spring and summer floods, and even at this late season the half a dozen crossings were
difficult for ponies. It was thus a real relief when the last rock gate of the river, known as Tügine-
tar (Fig. 75), was passed, and we emerged from these gloomy defiles into the now rapidly widening
valley close to where the Kara-bēl-jilga joins it.

Here the character of the valley undergoes a complete change, with a corresponding effect Passage
on the traveller's rate of progress. Whereas the seven and a half miles' march from our camp through
at Kara-tumshuk had cost us as many hours of toil, with considerable risk to the baggage, the eroded
remaining eleven miles to our night's camp at the cultivated area of Sāmān were easily covered outer hills.
in two hours on the ponies brought up from Khān-terek to meet us. The track led throughout
over broad riverine plateaux or wide alluvial fans, cultivated in parts by Kirghiz. Instead of