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0395	Innermost Asia : vol.1
極奥アジア : vol.1

thought likely to tempt exploration. That popular imagination in the Tārīm basin has from early
times been always much exercised by stories about ruined towns to be found in the desert, I have
repeatedly had occasion to point out.¹¹ And the legend current in the Uch-Turfān tract, which
places ancient castles full of treasure among the fantastically serrated rocky peaks of Kāka-jāde,
provides a striking example of the readiness with which this belief attaches itself to natural features.¹²
Parallels to this process could, no doubt, be found in Western folk-lore also, especially in that of
alpine regions.

This identification of the Town of the Dragon derives direct support from what at first might Huge
appear a fanciful exaggeration. I mean the huge extent attributed to the town by the mention extent of
that it was a long day's journey from the western city gate to the eastern. As a matter of fact, legendary
it took us a march of fully eighteen miles from L.I. in a straight line to get past the southern face town.
of the Mesa belt, and this belt, moreover, as Map No. 32. A. 3 shows, extends for about four miles
to the south-west of our starting-point.¹³

Owing to the urgent necessity of assuring rapid progress along what I had recognized as the Local
line of the ancient route, it was to my regret impossible at the time to attempt any close examination features
of the Mesa-covered area. I am therefore unable to offer any suggestion as to where the canal mentioned
of which traces were supposed to survive 'at the scarped foot of the town' should be placed. Still by Li Tao-
less can I locate the particular clay ridge from the form of which tradition appears to have derived yüan.
the name 'Dragon Town', as recorded in the concluding words of his passage.

But it is interesting to note that in the reference to the wind which 'blowing has gradually
produced the form of a dragon', we have what looks like a correct comprehension of the great part
played by wind-erosion in the surface configuration of this ground. Whether the description of
'the form of a dragon, which with its face turned westwards regards the lake', has any possible
connexion with the general NNE. to SSW. bearing of individual Mesas is a question to which
even renewed examination of that strange ground might not permit us to give a confident
answer. But we shall see presently how fully my own observations confirmed the accuracy of Li
Tao-yüan's notice concerning the physical characteristics of the region adjoining the Town of
the Dragon, and this must strengthen our belief in the intimate local knowledge possessed by the
authority from which he borrowed the statements above discussed, together with the rest of those
relating to Lou-lan topography.

Section III.—ACROSS THE SALT-ENCRUSTED LOP SEA-BED

The level plain of clay which lay before us at Camp ci offered promise of easy progress ; I was Easterly
therefore tempted to abandon the assumed bearing of the ancient route which we had followed course
so far for an almost due easterly course. I was anxious to avoid lengthening unnecessarily the march taken.
across the hard salt crust of the ancient sea-bed which I knew lay ahead of us. On the other hand,
there was also danger in approaching the glacis of the Kuruk-tāgh too closely and thus being led
away from the nearest line towards our definite goal, the wells of Kum-kuduk, in the south-east.
The morning was cloudy when, on February 28th, we started at daybreak, and the hills of the
Kuruk-tāgh to the north seemed strangely near. Finally, not without hesitation, I chose as our
immediate guiding point the single small prominence rising above the flat plain eastwards, obviously
a Mesa.

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国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

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国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
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