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Innermost Asia : vol.1 |
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along their tops with a view to save the constant ups and downs so trying to laden camels and thus
to reduce strain at the cost of distance would in any case have been useless, since those tops were
invariably crowned by huge dunes very steep-edged on their lee side and consequently such as
camels could not possibly skirt or ' traverse '. Nor was relief to be sought in the depressions or
valleys ; for in proportion as the ' Dawāns ' rose to greater height these depressions at their bottom
became more and more smothered with dunes. At first there were still a few little patches of eroded
level ground at the bottom of the valleys that we crossed after four and five and a half miles, respec-
tively, from Camp xxvi, and near them a little living tamarisk scrub (Fig. 87). But beyond
this point there was no flat ground to be found even in the valleys, and progress with the heavily
laden camels became painfully slow. Careful levels taken along our track a couple of miles before
reaching Camp xxvii showed an aggregate ascent of more than 350 feet over a single mile's marching
distance as measured by cyclometer, with corresponding descents even more trying to the heavily
laden animals. Measurements similarly taken over different average stretches on that day's march
proved that the windings involved by the only practicable route line always added from 30 to
40 per cent. of marching distance to the actual progress in a straight line as marked on the map.
No wonder that the hired camels already began to show serious signs of exhaustion towards the
close of that day.
But an interesting discovery awaited us at its end. As we descended into a valley running Finds of
as usual ENE.-WSW., and whose bottom lay some 250 feet below the point where we had crossed worked
the adjoining ' Dawān ', I noticed the edge of a wind-eroded clay terrace protruding from the side stones.
of a dune. By the steep Yārdang-like side of this terrace there ran a narrow trench, dug out by
wind-erosion to a depth of about 50 feet and its lowest point showing a few small living plants.
Here Kāsim Ākhūn, returning during the night, succeeded in striking scanty water after digging
down about five feet. Narrow patches of the same hard grey clay reappeared farther on and induced
me to follow the valley bottom for about a mile or so eastward (Fig. 88). Soon we picked up,
wherever the bare ground showed, small pieces of stone, some roughly worked, some mere lumps.
The former seemed to resemble the small stone implements which had been met with in plenty
in the Lop desert on my march to the Lou-lan Site in 1906.⁹ Among the specimens, which are
described in the List below, I thought I could recognize some blades of the 'pygmy' type, and
a few cores, the rest being coarse irregular flakes struck off by man but not themselves utilized.⁹ᵃ
The presence of these remains of the Stone Age, scattered on the surface of whatever small Palaeo-
patches of eroded ground appeared between the dunes, clearly proves occupation by a palaeolithic lithic
settlement of what is now utterly lifeless desert, nearly thirty miles away from the nearest traceable occupation.
bed of the Yārkand river. That the latter could ever have followed in prehistoric times a course
so far south appears to me distinctly improbable considering the general configuration of this
portion of the Tārīm basin, which implies a steady if gentle rise towards the glacis of the K'un-lun.¹⁰
But in view of what I shall have occasion to point out below as regards the relation between the
surviving fragments of the ancient desert range and the present river courses, the possibility of
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