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0233	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

CHAPTER XXI

ON THE ANCIENT ROUTE ALONG THE KONCHE-DARYĀ

Section I.—THE RUINS OF YING-P'AN

On March 17th, while the bitter north-east gale still continued, I started from Yārdang-bulak Start for
for Ying-p'an, leaving Afrāz-gul's party behind to rejoin me by the Singer–Ying-p'an track after Ying-p'an.
another day's well-earned rest. Muhammad Bāqir, pleased at his brief meeting with his brother
from Turfān, was glad to be discharged to his home at Singer so as to convey there safely such
portions of the wild camel he had bagged as his own big camel could carry. Afrāz-gul would find
his way to the Singer–Ying-p'an route with ease, in order to rejoin me. I myself, guided by Abdul-
malik, followed a shorter route. It took us on the first day up the wide trough that we had previously
descended from Jigda-bulak and thus on to a broad gravel plateau which continues the north-
western end of the Charchak-tāgh towards Toghrak-bulak. The ground traversed on our way
to Camp ccxlv was just as barren as the Sai of stone and gravel over which our previous route
had led. But on the plateau where we camped there rose at least scattered tamarisk-cones, which
supplied us with fuel. We had approached sufficiently close to the Charchak-tāgh to see that while
the foot of this outermost hill range was completely buried in gravel, its upper portion rose here
with wall-like steepness in a continuous line.

On the following day we turned to the west and, descending from the plateau across several Descent
well-marked dry drainage beds, approached an isolated hill spur, conspicuous by the red colour from
of its sandstone. It is known to the folk of Singer as Toghra-tāgh from its lying transversely across Kuruk-
the Ying-p'an road. An easy saddle took us over the middle of this low spur to a wide peneplain tāgh.
with plenty of the 'Chikanda' scrub growing on small cones, and here at the foot of whitish clay
cliffs we struck the Ying-p'an 'road' (Map No. 25. D. 3). The Burān had practically effaced the
track, and without Abdulmalik we might easily have passed on beyond it. The 'road' led to
the west-south-west and at a distance of about 12 miles from Camp ccxlv brought us to the edge of
the peneplain. It was clearly marked by a line of Mesas forming a kind of shelf which closely
recalled that seen on our marches between Yaka-yārdang-bulak and L.T. above the Kuruk-
daryā. This resemblance struck me all the more because, after we had covered about three miles
more over a gravel Sai which seemed to the eye almost level, so gentle was its slope to the south,
we came to the sharply marked line of a second shelf dipping steeply down, just as the Sai of the
'foreshore' does to the riverine belt of the Kuruk-daryā where previously seen.

This now soon came into view to the south in the shape of a continuous dark line formed by Arrival at
tamarisk-cones. Moving diagonally towards it we reached its edge after proceeding about six Ying-p'an
miles. We then crossed a zone of abundant vegetation of reeds and scrub, such as our eyes had not station.
seen since we left the northern slopes of the T'ien-shan, and arrived at a line of live Toghraks
stretching along an old river-bed filled by a fresh-water marsh. There, after a long day's march,
we pitched camp at the ruined Chinese station which had been occupied while the postal route
from Lop to Turfān was maintained after the reconquest. We were welcomed by a few men from
Tikenlik, whom the headman of that small oasis had dispatched with much-needed supplies in

II 5 D

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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
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ