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

composed of soft disintegrated clay with plentiful flakes of gypsum, offered excellent going to our
weary feet.
Level plain The wide view obtained from our next plane-table fixing, on a low hillock about twelve and
with gravel a half miles from camp, necessarily raised in my mind the question why this plain had escaped
glacis to E. erosion, such as had produced the broad belt of Yārdangs just traversed, or alternatively why it
should have been worn and levelled down so much more uniformly. The fact of the aneroid
recording a steady rise distinctly supported the former assumption, without supplying the required
explanation. I shall presently recur to this and some kindred geological questions suggested by
the present environment of the ancient sea-bed. To the east and south-east we could now see
clearly the terminal spurs of at least two separate ranges of low hills jutting out towards the great
basin, with a wide gravel glacis descending at their foot. Westwards the view ranged over the
vast salt-encrusted plain of the ancient sea-bed, stretching unbroken to the horizon, but edged by
the Yārdang belt which we had just transversely passed through. This seemed to end south-west-
wards along a line of which the nearest point lay about four or five miles from where we stood.
Beyond this line to the south no Yārdangs were to be seen, either now or on our farther progress.
Detour of The fact that we had been able on the preceding day to cross the formidable obstacle presented
route by the salt-encrusted sea-bed by a single day's march had furnished me with an adequate and most
to NE. welcome explanation why the ancient Chinese route we had successfully traced from L.J. to the
explained. ' Mesa of the coins and dagger ' had followed that direction to the north-east which at first seemed
so puzzling. That direction was indeed leading away at right angles from the south-westerly
line which would have offered the shortest route from Lou-lan to the ' valley ' of Bēsh-toghrak and
thence to Tun-huang. But the great detour implied by that initial north-easterly bearing of
the route had now proved amply compensated ; for it reduced the very serious physical difficulties
which beset the crossing of the dried-up sea-bed within limits such as Chinese perseverance and
practical ingenuity in transport organization might cope with.
Question of There remained the disturbing doubt as to whether direct archaeological evidence could be
ancient found, in the utterly lifeless wastes we were crossing, that ancient traffic had actually passed over
route-line. the ground where I conjecturally located its line. After our long trying marches, in a region totally
devoid of resources, there still remained a considerable distance to cover with our worn-out transport
before we could hope to reach drinkable water. It was therefore incompatible with due regard
for my caravan's safety to spare days for that close and systematic search which alone could give
reasonable hope of discovering small relics, such as had helped me to the west of the ancient sea-bed.
But fortune again favoured me and came to my assistance with finds which, small as they were,
sufficed to give assurance that we were still near the ancient desert track.
Finds of We had scarcely proceeded more than half a mile to the south-south-west of the above-mentioned
Han coins. low hillock when a Chinese copper coin of the large inscribed Wu-chu type was picked up by one
of the camelmen in my presence. On continuing our march in the same direction for only two
furlongs Afrāz-gul's keen eyes lit upon a spherical bead of translucent white glass, C. ciii. 05,
lying on the coarse sand which here lightly covered the soil.¹⁰ These two small objects picked
up along the very line of our march raised a strong presumption that they had dropped from
traffic following a route of identical or closely similar bearing. A second coin picked up within
a mile and three-quarters of the first fully confirmed this conclusion ; but the find was attended
by a discovery which at the time was bound to exercise our minds even more by its strangeness.
Niāz Pāwān, one of our two Lopliks, while searching the ground in the direction we were following
suddenly noticed a man's footprints leading off to a small hillock close to the west of our route.