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0140	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

it to inundate the surrounding land ; we saw evidence of this as we rode over the scrub-covered
plain to the north edge of the cultivated zone of Kalta-yailak. This, wherever I saw it, presented
a neglected and straggling appearance. But this could scarcely be due to inadequacy of water,
for one of its main canals where we crossed it on our way to the village of Kuduk still carried at this
late season a volume of over forty cubic feet per second.

Mound of On the following morning I proceeded from Kuduk to the ruined mound known as Tim,
Tim. which rises above the scrub-covered salty plain about two and a half miles north-west of the village.
It proved to be a shapeless mound measuring roughly 67 by 84 feet on the ground level and about
26 feet across its top, which rises to a height of about 16 feet. It is composed of loose earth inter-
mingled with layers of small brushwood, and it recalled to me the mounds of Tūge-dong near
Chīra examined in 1901.¹² Like these it may well mark an old burial-place, but the salty nature
of the soil, due to occasional floods from the Mutul-aghzī defile, leaves little hope of antiquarian
finds. Proceeding thence to the north-east we crossed the bare clay steppe formed by the alluvial
fan of the barren valley leading to Uch-turfān ; the usual route to that place follows the valley
past the watch-station of Sughun-karaul (Map 5. B. 1). The formation of dunes, in the shape of
isolated ' Barkhans ', over the eastern part of this ' Dasht ', showed the growing aridity of the
ground. At the Ak-maidān we reached the extreme point irrigated by the Ārtush drainage ;
all the straggling area of cultivation, of which we continued to skirt the northern edge for another
seventeen miles as we travelled eastward, was said to receive its water from canals fed by the
Kāshgar river. We did not approach the end of it until long after nightfall, when we camped
at one of the last farms of Bēsh-tam.

Start east- From Bēsh-tam our desert journey in search of the ' old road ' to Marāl-bāshi commenced.
wards from I had verified on our preceding marches that some vague knowledge of its existence survived
Bēsh-tam. in local tradition, and also that this pointed to its having followed the foot of the rugged outermost
hill chain, which in the clear atmosphere of the autumn could be seen stretching far away due
east with a wall-like appearance. The ground to be traversed by us for a distance of over a hundred
miles was wholly unsurveyed, and, in view of the probable difficulty in finding water and of the
necessity of husbanding time, we were very fortunate in securing a capable guide in the person
of Barat, a villager from Ördeklik on the high road. He had been for years in the habit of pro-
specting for minerals in the barren hills northward, and was for the time being employed by Tāshe
Ākhūn, an enterprising landowner of Āstin-Ārtush and our host at Wakwak, in the exploitation
of a small copper mine at Tonguz-aghzī, north of Bēsh-tam. He had only once made his way
to Marāl-bāshi by the route to be surveyed, but proved very intelligent and possessed of remarkable
sense of locality.

From Bēsh- For a mile or so beyond the limit of actual cultivation the ground at Bēsh-tam continued
tam to fertile, and as the last summer flood had been ample there were patches of it newly broken up and
Bogach-köl. sown. But our farther march of October 13th along the foot of the range lay almost wholly over
an utterly barren clay steppe, showing only dead tamarisk scrub on cones or else salt-incrustation.
At a point known as Kara-tāsh, Barat showed us a large slag-covered mound where at one time
copper ore from a mine in the hills had been smelted. No work had been carried on here within
living recollection, while the extent of the mound, some 50 yards across and 8–10 feet high, pointed
to prolonged occupation. The fragments of partly glazed pottery that were brought to light,
together with rags of fabrics and similar objects, in a thick refuse deposit adjoining the mound
on the south, looked to me decidedly old.¹³ But our search for coins or other datable remains

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