Innermost Asia : vol.2 / 309 ページ（カラー画像）

0309	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

evidently long been continuously occupied, was attributed to successive failures of crops, owing
to defective irrigation. Yet the inhabitants of this region were loath to abandon it for newly reclaimed
and for the time being better served land, such as, curiously enough, we saw next day stretching
for about four miles below the last old farm of Khanak-atam. A new canal, made some six years
before under the District Magistrate's orders, had caused new cultivation to be started here by
a considerable number of colonists. Yet none of them seemed as yet to feel sufficient confidence in
the venture to establish homes on the land. This is a significant illustration of that impermanence
to which the uncertainty of various factors is apt to reduce agricultural enterprise along the terminal
courses of canals in all these oases.

At Khanak-atam I found that Afrāz-gul had arrived from the survey he had carried trans- Walled
versely from Yulduz-bāgh across the southern portions of Kuchā cultivation. His observations, enclosures
recorded on the plane table and in a route report, proved the existence of a series of ruined walled Afrāz-gul.
enclosures and watch-towers, now abandoned to decay, in the area stretching east of the Kuchā–
Shahyār high road. These remains of small circumvallations, built of stamped clay, all resemble
closely those which we examined to the south of Yulduz-bāgh. Rough plans of two specimens
from a site known as Ak-shahr, near the village of Sai-arik, are reproduced in Pl. 40. As the map
(No. 17. B. C. 2) shows, they all lie near existing canals and within easy reach of the present
occupied area. Hence they appear to have suffered much, both from decay through moisture and
from frequent digging for manuring soil or for 'treasure'. There was little chance of finding
datable relics at such ruins, and this made it easier for me to forgo examining them in person.

Instead, I set out on May 2nd from our camp at the last farm of Khanak-atam to visit the ruins Circum-
that Mīr Sharīf had offered to show me to the south-east. For about four miles our route followed vallation
the new canal previously mentioned, which at that time carried nearly 4 cubic feet of water per shahr.
second, and past the newly cleared fields of the colony it had created. Then the tamarisk-cones
in the neighbourhood grew higher, and we saw groves of wild poplars stretching from north-west to
south-east. Between these, and at a distance of about nine miles from camp, we came upon the
embankment of an old canal following the same direction. It led to a large circumvallation, which
Mīr Sharīf knew by the name of Chong-shahr. It was formed by an earthen rampart about 10
feet high, enclosing an area of irregular oval shape (Pl. 41). This measured, on the inside, about
340 yards from north-west to south-east, in the direction of the major axis. On the north-west the
rampart adjoined an earthen mound about 70 yards across from north to south and about 30 feet
high. Refuse heaps permeated with salt spread in places over the interior of this rough enclosure,
the age of which remains quite uncertain.

After we had moved about a mile and a half north-eastwards across ground encrusted with
soft shōr, Mīr Sharīf showed me what he called the 'small town' of the site. It proved to be the
ruin of a small post, enclosed by walls of stamped clay about 7 feet thick, and measuring about
38 feet square inside. There were traces of an outer enclosure, also built of stamped clay, with
walls running parallel to, but at varying distances from, those of the post. The walls of the latter
still rose to 12 or 13 feet in places, betokening solid construction. But here, too, I could find no
definite indication of date.

Marching from here for about four miles to the south-east, we arrived at a large depression Inundated
known as Tauruk, which in certain years, at times of flood, receives water from the Shayān-daryā, ground
an easterly bed of the terminal course of the Muz-art river. The bottom of the depression was cultivated.
found to be dry, but a well dug here to a depth of only 2½ feet yielded perfectly fresh water. The
fact that this depression had been put under temporary cultivation in the preceding year, and had
yielded a good wheat crop, furnished an illustration of a practice widely prevalent along the banks

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