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| 0396 |
Innermost Asia : vol.1 |
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Marches to
isolated
Mesa.
We had scarcely covered half a mile when the discovery of a Wu-chu coin picked up under
my eyes gave welcome assurance that notwithstanding the altered direction we could not be far
off the line which the ancient Chinese route had followed. Then we tramped on steadily for another
five and a half miles, without my paying much heed at the time to the fact that the soil, though still
showing a surface of decomposed clay with abundant flakes of gypsum, was increasingly hardened
by salt impregnation. When we arrived at the Mesa, which rose to a height of about twenty-five
feet above ground manifestly eroded, it too was found to be encrusted with shôr.
Relics
found on
Mesa.
Here a strange discovery awaited us. I was just preparing to climb the Mesa to inspect the
ground ahead, when one of my men noticed three Wu-chu coins lying in line, about a yard or so
from each other, close to the western foot of the ridge. I picked them up myself, and found that
the impression left by them on the salty clay was quite clear. Next there were found on the north-
western slope, about five feet above ground level, the gracefully designed hook, cast in copper,
C. ci. 05 (Pl. XXIII), which probably formed part of a buckle, and the ornamental pierced copper
ball, C. ci. 04 (Pl. XXIII), together with a small corroded fragment of iron, C. ci. 06. The close
search which was immediately made brought to light on the southern slope of the Mesa, on a level
about ten feet above the ground near by, the major portion of an iron snaffle-bit, C. ci. 02 (Pl. XXIII),
and a small iron skewer with ring handle, C. ci. 03 (Pl. XXIII). A little apart lay the rusted but
otherwise well-preserved iron dagger, C. ci. 01 (Pl. XXIII), retaining part of a cross-piece where
the guard had been, and measuring over blade and tang a little over nine inches. This seemed to
me the most striking of all the finds and suddenly brought back to my mind the similar incident
in an explorer's quest, as told in one of Jules Verne's stories which I had read more than forty
years before.¹ Finally we recovered two more Wu-chu coins, large inscribed pieces and well
preserved, like the first finds, together with the fine pale-green glass bead, C. ci. 08 (Pl. XXIII),
on the northern slope about eight feet above the ground level.
Evidence
of ancient
traffic.
The discovery of all these relics close together was a dramatic surprise. There could be no
possible doubt that they dated from the period when the Chinese ' route of the centre ' leading to
Lou-lan was frequented by traffic. The evidence of the coins is completely supported by that of
the small iron skewer C. ci. 03 (Pl. XXIII), which in shape and make exactly conforms to five other
specimens excavated in 1907 at different watch-stations of the Han Limes west and north of Tun-
huang.² The collective character of the finds afforded striking proof that notwithstanding our
deviation from the bearing indicated by the previous discoveries, chance, or perhaps a kind of
subconscious antiquarian instinct, had rightly brought us to what must have been a place of halt
on the ancient desert highway I was endeavouring to trace.
Position of
objects
found on
slope.
But however much I rejoiced at this happy chance and the further guidance it promised,
it left two puzzling questions unanswered. The first, relating to the immediate locality, arose from
the fact that, apart from the first three coins, all the objects were found on the slopes of the clay
ridge. This necessarily suggested at first that they had reached their position through wind-
erosion, which had carried off the soil on the top where they might have originally rested, as certainly
had happened with the metal objects picked up on the slopes of L.C. But a very careful search
made on the summit of the narrow ridge revealed no trace of any structural remains. Nor did
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684
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