Innermost Asia : vol.1 / 219 ページ（カラー画像）

0219	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

ample as was the *ak-su* of those summers, and after the failure of two crops Nūrullah's new settlers
all deserted him in the winter preceding my visit. His hope of restoring cultivation in his colony
depended upon damming up the new bed by a *tugh* at a point about half a mile below the position
of the former barrage, where the bed passed between two high tamarisk-cones and where it was
some twenty feet deep (Fig. 105). But to secure the labour needed for this task was beyond
Nūrullah's resources or those of the Mazār Shaikhs to whom he owed a tithe on the land, and an
attempt made with a few local men failed. So although a little wheat had been harvested in 1913
and the fruit trees were still alive, there was danger of the complete abandonment of the colony.

These facts ascertained by me on the spot supply instructive evidence of the precarious Abandon-
character of cultivation in all terminal oases, whether large or small. They also strikingly illustrate ment of
—what I have discussed at length elsewhere—how varied the causes which may lead to their colony.
abandonment, whether gradual or sudden, and how difficult it may be at a later date, in the absence
of direct contemporary record, to determine the true cause.² We have here a clear instance of
cultivation at the very termination of a river brought to an end not from want of water, such as
would result from 'desiccation', whether progressive or temporary, but on the contrary by its in-
creased volume and a change in the river course with which the available local resources were
unable to cope under the prevailing economic and administrative conditions. Nūrullah's colonists
would have been well able to maintain and extend their little oasis with the previous volume of
water. But when its increase during the last three years finally led to a diversion of the stream
into a new channel they were unable to meet the emergency, and abandonment of their holdings
followed rapidly.

These observations must convey to the critical student a lesson of obvious antiquarian interest ; Cause of
for assuming that this abandonment of Tūlküch-kōl were to be final and Nūrullah's large dwelling abandon-
came to be invaded and in time buried by the ever present drift-sand, there would be as little chance ment
of its explorer, centuries hence, arriving at a definite conclusion regarding the true cause of the difficult to
abandonment as we have now in respect of the ancient settlement in the desert beyond. Only determine
contemporary record can definitely clear up the doubts and varied possibilities involved by an later.
archaeological question of this nature, and unfortunately there is little hope of such a record being
found among all the ancient Kharoṣṭhī documents that the Niya Site has preserved.

I may mention here that my timely return to the Niya Site incidentally offered a chance of Construc-
saving the Tūlküch-tārīm. My resumed excavations had brought a comparatively large force tion of new
of able-bodied labourers near the spot. So when I had returned with them from the ruins and was barrage.
leaving for Charchan I was glad to set them to work to raise a new *tugh* across the deep-cut flood-
bed at the point where Nūrullah's previous effort had failed. The work was expected to take
about five days, and as I deposited the sum needed for the men's wages with the Mazār Shaikhs
whose prayers duly preceded the start, they set to work with a will (Fig. 105). Skilled carpenters
were among them for the construction of the needed pile-framework and abundant timber was
close at hand, so that completion of the little canal head was assured. It was only just in time ;
for owing to the protection afforded by the ice now rapidly forming on the lakelets near the Mazār
the winter supply of *kara-su* from springs in the terminal bed of the Niya river was expected to
descend in the Yār towards Tūlküch-kōl very shortly, and its arrival would have impeded the
work at the new barrage.

On the same occasion I ascertained that the total volume of *kara-su* available in the terminal

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