Innermost Asia : vol.2 / 326 ページ（カラー画像）

0326	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

Irrigation
resources
of Ak-su.

The first of these marches brought us close to the south-western edge of the area of continuous cultivation irrigated by canals taking off from the left bank, near the junction of the Taushkan-daryā and Kum-arik-daryā. Notwithstanding the early season, there was abundance of water flowing both in the united bed of the two rivers, where the high road fords it near Chok-tal, and in the western branch, known as the 'Kōne-daryā' and crossed by a bridge. This afforded fresh proof of the fact, already noted, that the area at present cultivated in the main oasis of Ak-su is much smaller than that which the volume of water available at all seasons in the two rivers would permit to be tilled.⁸ Beyond the straggling fields which mark spasmodic attempts at cultivation near Khangung, the last hamlet, the road leads for some 30 miles along the line where the stony Sai, stretching down from the foot of the outermost hill range, known as Ingan-tāgh, meets the flat clayey steppe covered with low scrub, mainly tamarisk. Of the wells sunk at three desolate roadside posts, only those of Shōta-kuduk contained fairly drinkable water.

Station of
Chilan.

The station of Chilan lies where the present road line, continuing its direction to the south-west, leaves the edge of the gravel glacis. Here the houses of some three dozen families cluster round two ruined forts. It marks the eastern extremity of the area to which water derived from the drainage of the Kelpin basin (Map No. 7. B. 3) can at present be brought beyond the newly reclaimed village lands of Achal, which I had passed in 1908.⁹ On topographical grounds we may safely assume that even in earlier times the main road towards Kāshgar lay through Chilan. But beyond it there is strong reason to suppose that the ancient route, at least down to T'ang times, followed a more direct, westerly line through desert ground, now wholly waterless, past the ruined sites of Chong-tim and Lāl-tāgh.

Earlier line
of road to
Marāl-
bāshi.

I have already discussed the archaeological grounds upon which this belief is based,¹⁰ and a glance at the map strongly supports it ; for it shows that the almost straight route leading from Chilan past those two sites, and through the gap guarded by the towers of Arach, to Marāl-bāshi, is some 15 miles shorter than the line followed by the present high road. The need for water compels the latter to make a detour to the south, in order to reach a terminal river-bed known as Kara-köl-jilga ; this receives water from the marshes to the south of Tumshuk which are fed by the summer floods of the rivers of Kāshgar and Yārkand (Map Nos. 7. c. 4 ; 8. B. 1). Before the Kara-köl stream is struck at the station of Yaka-kuduk, no water is to be found on the road beyond Chilan, except at the brackish wells of Yaide. Lack of time and this difficulty about water unfortunately made it impossible for me to search the desert westwards for the remains of those towers at Soksuk-shahri and elsewhere, along the ancient route between Chilan and Chong-tim, of which I had heard in May, 1908, on my way from Kelpin.¹¹

Change of
road beyond
Tumshuk.

From Yaka-kuduk onwards the road keeps more or less close to the left bank of the winding Kara-köl stream, lined for the most part by luxuriant Toghrak groves as far as the station of Chādir-köl. Some six miles beyond this point, the road brought us to a long stretch of ground covered with patches of new cultivation. They belonged to the village of Ak-tam, which I found

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

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

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

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

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