Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 206 ページ（カラー画像）

0206	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

Bēg-yailaki and Khādalik in the east, have, together with the remains brought to light, been fully
described in the reports on my former journeys.¹ I have also discussed there at some length the
peculiar physical conditions that affect the irrigation resources of Domoko and the neighbouring
small oases. These largely account for the changes just referred to in the extent and position of
their cultivated areas.

Extended
cultiva-
tion at
Khalpat. I may therefore conveniently note here a few observations that I made about the latest of
such changes on my way to the newly reported remains of Kuduk-köl east of Domoko. When
approaching Chira from the scrubby desert on the west I found the small cultivated area of Khalpat,
which by 1908 had grown up around what in 1901 was a solitary 'Langar' by the roadside, linked
up by a continuous stretch of fields with the main oasis.² This rapid extension is all the more note-
worthy because the cultivation at Chīra, as explained to me by Ibrāhīm Bēg, my old retainer, for
years Mīrāb Bēg of Chira and thus a very competent informant, is entirely dependent on ak-su or
the water brought down from the mountains by the spring and summer floods.

Increased
cultiva-
tion of
Gulakhma. An equally striking change was observable eastwards. There the cultivated area of Gulakhma,
the next oasis in the line stretching along the foot of the gravel glacis of the K'un-lun, was found
to have extended since 1906 right up to that of Ponak.³ Old fields long abandoned to the desert
had again been brought under cultivation, but low tamarisk-cones still remained to bear witness
to the change. The village lands of Ponak, which in 1901 I had seen almost completely abandoned to
the desert,⁴ were now said to support some two hundred households, though they were still far from
being completely cleared of the scrub and drift-sand of the desert that had overrun them for centuries.

Irrigation
supply from
kara-su. Irrigation in the area of Gulakhma, Ponak, and Domoko is supplied mainly by the springs in
which the underground drainage from the mountains (kara-su) comes to the surface again at the
foot of the gravel glacis south of the oases.⁵ It is therefore of interest to note that when passing on
December 2 from Gulakhma through Ponak to Ak-köl, at the north-eastern edge of the Domoko
oasis, I found the Ponak-akin carrying about 28 cubic feet of water per second and the Domoko-
yār stream, which farther down supplies water to the new and still expanding colony of Malak-
ālagan,⁶ not less than about 100 cubic feet per second.

Finds at
Kuduk-köl. My explorations of 1906 at and near the site of Khādalik and those of 1908 at Farhād-Bēg-
yailaki had proved that remains of settlements dating from the Buddhist period were plentiful in
the desert belt immediately to the north and north-east of the present oasis of Domoko. They had
at the same time shown me that the peculiarly deceptive character of this desert ground, covered
for the most part with close-set tamarisk-cones and scrubby jungle, made it extremely difficult to
trace them all.⁷ I was accordingly by no means surprised when I learned at Khotan of a find of
manuscript leaves, evidently in Brāhmī, reported to have been made recently at some place close
to Khādalik.⁷ᵃ Through Mullah Khwāja, my old guide of 1906 to the last-named site, I secured at

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