Innermost Asia : vol.2 / 251 ページ（カラー画像）

0251	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

'kingdom of Mo-shan', i. e. the western Kuruk-tāgh, and before continuing its eastward course
to the 'town of Lou-lan'.

I have already, in Serindia, briefly expressed the belief that by the 'town of Chu-pin' is Li Tao-
probably meant the locality marked by the ruins of the Ying-p'an site. In support of this identifica- yüan's
tion, I would call attention in the first place to the natural advantages offered by the site for a settle- town of
ment of some importance, especially during the period when the ancient high road from Lou-lan Chu-pin'.
towards Korla and the string of northern oases passed along the Kuruk-daryā. We shall see
that the line followed by this high road is marked beyond all doubt by the line of massive watch-
towers which extends from Ying-p'an north-westwards to the vicinity of Korla. Archaeological
evidence enables us to assign these to Former Han times, the very period when the road passing
through Lou-lan possessed its greatest importance. The route, which can still be traced by the line
of these ruined watch-stations for a distance of about ninety miles, led along the extreme foot of
the Kuruk-tāgh glacis. It was thus protected from those difficulties of communication to which
periodical inundations and changing river-courses inevitably give rise in the riverine belt below
the glacis edge, difficulties such as the present track from Kara-kum to Charkhlik is constantly
exposed to during the flood season and the early autumn. At the same time the old course of the
Konche-daryā lay sufficiently near to this route to ensure easy access to water.

The traffic passing north-westwards from the oases of ancient Shan-shan, i. e. from the side Road
of the present Charkhlik and from the adjoining riverine tract of Lou-lan, found obvious advantage junction
in gaining this safe ground, which was practicable at all seasons. Reference to the map will show at Ying-
that Ying-p'an was the nearest point where it could be reached by those coming from the south and p'an.
south-east. The Ying-p'an site may thus with great probability be considered as the point of
junction of the ancient 'route of the centre' coming from Lou-lan and a transverse road which
connected it with the oases along the ancient 'route of the south', Shan-shan (Lop), Chü-mo
(Charchan), &c., and which probably passed close to the ruined fort of Merdek.¹⁵ The importance
of the Ying-p'an site as a road junction must have been further enhanced by the fact that the most
direct route connecting the whole of the Lop area with Turfān also led through it, then as now.¹⁶
It is easy, moreover, to realize the benefit that all traffic passing these cross-roads at the foot of
the barren Kuruk-tāgh derived from the fact that just here the physical conditions were such as
to permit of cultivation, restricted to narrow limits, perhaps, but yet permanent.

I have had frequent occasion to point out how difficult it is throughout the Tārīm basin to Cultivation
maintain irrigation along the river-courses, except below the point where they debouch from the possible at
mountains or else in 'terminal oases' before they lose themselves in the sands, owing to the vagaries Ying-p'an.
of the beds, the damage caused by floods to canal heads, &c. Now Ying-p'an is the only point
where the Konche-daryā and its continuation, the Kuruk-daryā, are joined by a stream large enough
even now at times to carry an appreciable volume of water across the thirsty Sai down to the
riverine belt. That this is the case with the river of Shindī is sufficiently proved by the lagoons
and the freshwater springs along their sides which are to be found here in the bed of the Kuruk-
daryā ; for these are fed solely by the floods periodically descending from the Shindī valley. That
this water-supply could even in comparatively modern times be utilized for cultivation is proved
by the remains of a late Muhammadan settlement described above. The fact that this amount
of water is available in the river of Shindī, whereas it cannot be found in any of the other beds

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