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| 0428 |
Innermost Asia : vol.1 |
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where we crossed it was about two miles wide.⁴ Beyond it the ground was covered with fine sand
supporting an abundance of reeds, tamarisks and scrub.
Evidence As we were moving across it towards the low banks of clay marking the foot of the glacis,
of subsoil I noticed moist soil at about six miles' distance from camp. It was clear proof of the presence of
drainage. subsoil water here close to the surface, and on digging a well we found a plentiful supply at a depth
of only three feet. It tasted perfectly fresh, far better than the water of the wells at Kum-kuduk
and Yantak-kuduk. Considering the utterly barren nature of the hill range overlooking the
whole valley, the comparative nearness of its crest, and the extremely scanty drainage which can
ever descend from it in the short channels cut into its glacis, it appeared to me very unlikely that
the water found here and at other points along the northern edge of the valley could have any
other source than a flow of subsoil moisture fed from the head of the valley near Bēsh-toghrak.
The origin of this subterranean water-supply is an interesting question which will best be discussed
later on in connexion with that of the hydrography of the ancient terminal basin of the Su-lo-ho
farther east.⁵
Traces of The sand across which we moved became steadily coarser until we reached the gravel Sai
old track. below a line of low clay banks manifestly eroded by water, like the banks of a river. Here I noticed
quite clearly an old track, distinct though only faintly impressed, coming from west-south-west.
No footprints of wild camels were observed anywhere near it. It was the same track that Lāl
Singh and Afrāz-gul coming from their Camp 96 had traced for a much longer distance and
found in places actually marked by small cairns. Their report, as recorded below, fully bore out
the impression I gained here that it was a path which had first been trodden by men. Following
the line of clay banks eastwards we soon lost the old track in a reed-covered depression. Beyond
this we arrived, at a distance of about fourteen miles from Yantak-kuduk, at a bold Mesa, about
eighty feet high, which had clearly been detached by erosion from a foot spur of the hill range
projecting into the trough of the valley. I clambered with difficulty to the top, in order to fix
the plane-table, and found, to my surprise, remains of dead tamarisk wood.⁶ Considering the
position, there could be no possible doubt about the antiquity of these remains. They suggest
distinctly moister climatic conditions than those now prevailing ; for at that height neither subsoil
water nor a surface flow could possibly account for the former growth of vegetation.
Water- From the top of the Mesa I noticed ground which looked as if it might hold patches of open
logged water. So I turned now to the east-south-east, and after about two and a half miles' march across
ground. reed-beds reached a salt bog extending for a considerable distance in the same direction. It was
fully seventy yards wide where we skirted it near its western extremity. The salt-encrusted soil
immediately to the north of it proved water-logged below the surface, and it was with some difficulty
that we extricated the camels which were foundering on the treacherous ground. The presence
of this well-defined marsh-bed close to the foot of the low and utterly barren outer hill range of the
Pei-shan distinctly pointed to a considerable flow of subterranean drainage from the head of the
valley eastwards. After another mile's march over light sand we pitched camp and found water
at a depth of only four feet, which, though tasting slightly brackish, was yet drinkable. The well
passed through a thin layer of shōr embedded in fine sand.
Next morning we moved east-north-east in the face of a bitterly cold wind from the same
direction, and passed over ground mostly covered with hard salt-impregnated clay. After a march
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