National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

elsewhere along this section, the wall—for so it may well be called considering its solid construction
—was found to be built solely of stout tamarisk branches thickly packed, without any distinguishable
layers of earth. For about a mile and a half it ran on continuously, still keeping a height of 10
feet at the end and being 7½ feet wide at the top. It looked doubly impressive in this sandy waste,
as a monument of constructive ingenuity and perseverance in truly forbidding surroundings.
Beyond this it could be traced only as a low swelling of the ground, without any wood showing
on the surface, for about three-quarters of a mile. Then we finally lost it among tamarisk-cones,
close set but not of great height.

Nowhere along the line thus surveyed by us were remains of towers or other marks of early Absence of
occupation to be observed. It is, of course, possible that decayed mounds marking towers and towers or
small patches of refuse or pottery debris may lie hidden below the sand and thus completely escape marks of
notice. But the nature of the ground and the peculiar method of construction here adopted permit occupation.
of another explanation being offered of this total absence of marks of former occupation. The
difficulty of securing water which this very method of constructing the agger indicates may soon
have convinced those who directed the operation of the practical impossibility of maintaining
regularly occupied watch-posts in this region. In that event they might well have contented them-
selves with having the Limes wall constructed, as it stands now, without towers, and arranging
for its protection solely by patrols from stations farther south placed in convenient proximity
to water.

However this may be, it is certain that the ground over which the line of the Limes had been Limes line
carried from here eastwards as far as the terminal course of the Pei-ta-ho (Map No. 42. c. 4), where across
we subsequently traced it, a direct distance of over forty-five miles, must have been a barren waterless
waterless waste of drift-sand or gravel Sai ever since ancient times. The fact that the Limes had waste.
been boldly carried into, and through, this truly forbidding area was striking proof that those
responsible for its construction were prepared for great and sustained efforts in the face of formidable
natural obstacles. Yet it was impossible to behold this impressive monument of their energy without
being moved by the thought of the immense amount of human suffering which the execution of
the imperial frontier scheme in this desolate region must have entailed.¹

After crossing a chain of dunes 40 to 50 feet high and proceeding southward for nearly four miles Ground
from the point where we left the wall, we came upon a decayed mound about 70 feet long and half between
as much across ; an enclosure some 94 yards square, built of brushwood bundles (see plan, T. XLIV. e, wall and
Pl. 16), adjoined it. There was evidence of its having served as a herdsmen's station, and the C. 129.
potsherds lying about on the surface (see List) appeared to be of a late period. But only a thorough
examination, for which there was neither time nor means, could have shown whether the remains of
some ancient post connected with the Limes was concealed under the debris accumulated as a result
of more recent, if intermittent, occupation by herdsmen. Farther south, on ground probably reached
by occasional rain floods, grazing was abundant, and there, about two miles from our camp, we
found a well 16 feet deep, which, as mud-built hovels near by showed, is still frequented by herdsmen.

We may now turn back to T. XLIV. a, the northernmost of the series of ancient watch-towers Finds at
previously mentioned as standing distinct from the Limes wall but stretching towards it. T. XLIV. a watch-
attracted our attention from afar, owing to its size and comparatively fair preservation. It was tower
found to measure 32 feet square at the base and to rise to 14 feet above a low plateau of gravel. T. XLIV. a.
It was built of layers of clay, 6 or 7 inches thick, and thin brushwood layers between. On the
eastern side a small structure appears to have adjoined it ; the debris of its walls, mingled with