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| 0297 |
Innermost Asia : vol.1 |
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The ground we entered after leaving the L.M. site showed at first clear signs of extreme wind- Marks of
erosion : Yārdang trenches were scooped out to a depth of 8 to 12 feet, and low dunes were frequent extreme
on the terraces between them. A line of dead Toghraks coming from the north-west and bending wind-
round towards the east was passed after about two miles' march. Finds of worked stones (see List erosion.
below) had grown rare after leaving L.M., and, with the exception of a single flint picked up about
five miles from the site, ceased altogether beyond the line of dead tree trunks just mentioned.
Farther on the Yārdang trenches became shallower, while the dunes now rising from 15 to 20 feet
in height were wide apart and allowed easy progress. There were stretches of practically flat,
abraded-looking ground, broken only by occasional sand-cones. The tamarisk growth that had
helped to form them and still held them together was dead, except here and there, where the branches
on the very top still showed life.
When fixing the plane-table on one of these isolated tamarisk-cones, at a direct distance of about Dry river-
8 miles from Camp xcii (L.M.) we could clearly make out before us rows of dead Toghraks running beds marked
from north-west to south-east and marking a broad river-course. Another branch similarly lined by dead
with a belt of dead forest was crossed about two miles farther on. Reference to the map on the Toghraks.
1 : 250,000 scale will show that these two dried-up channels have their obvious continuation to the
south-east in two exactly corresponding belts of ancient tree growth that we crossed on our route
of 1906 to the south of Camp 122. If we turn to the north-west, the direction from which the
course of these old branches of the Kuruk-daryā must be traced, we find them duly represented
by similar belts of dead riverine jungle shown both by my survey of 1907 and by Afrāz-gul's of 1915
near the spot where our respective routes crossed each other, in the vicinity of Camps 127a and
ccxlviii a.² From the fixing above mentioned we first caught a glimpse far away to the north of
the dark outline of the Kuruk-tāgh foot-hills showing above the horizon line of the yellow expanse
of bare sand and clay. The snowy rampart of the K'un-lun far off to the south, still visible in the
morning from Camp xcii, was now hidden by the dust-haze that a fresh north-east breeze had
since raised.
Beyond the strips of dead riverine forest our route led over ground where, as Fig. 140 shows, Neolithic
the soil was uniformly cut up by small Yārdangs, 4 to 6 feet deep, except where covered by low relics.
dunes. In its appearance this ground showed very close resemblance to that passed in 1906 near
Camp 122.³ That our route now lay in the vicinity of the latter was brought home to me at the
time by the recurrence of certain characteristics observed there in 1906. Fragments of pottery,
very coarse in make and evidently of neolithic origin, of which L.M.–C. xciii. o11–12 are specimens,
together with a few stone remains, corresponded to similar finds made in 1906 within a short distance
north of Camp 122.⁴ I observed moreover the frequent appearance, for the last few miles before
Camp xciii was reached, of dead reed-beds, with thick but low stubble, on the top of Yārdangs. Dead reed-
I have already discussed in Serindia the significance that these reed-beds, not of very ancient beds.
appearance, may have as indicating a temporary and later submersion of this ground.⁵ I have also
pointed out that such a submersion at a comparatively recent period would be in full accord with
certain observations made in this region by Dr. Hedin. His very interesting measurement of levels
between L.A. and the Kara-koshun has shown that just about this latitude a depression extends
for a distance of about two and a half miles to an average of about a metre (3′ 3·4″) below the flood
level of the Kara-koshun in the spring of 1901.
The fact that our route from south-west to north-east led almost parallel to the regular direction
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684
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National Institute of Informatics
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