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0128 The Pulse of Asia : vol.1
アジアの鼓動 : vol.1
The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 / 128 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000233
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became scarce, and when we returned to it they again
became abundant.

On the first day after joining the main caravan road in
this region, I counted the remains of thirty-two horses, half
eaten by wolves and ravens. The following day, in eighteen
miles I counted two hundred and twenty skeletons and
carcases of animals that must have died within the last two
or three years. We also passed, that day, thirty-six bales
of tea, spices, cloth, and Korans, abandoned the previous
fall by a caravan which started too late from Leh. Rasul,
our headman, had heard all about it: one horse gave out
here, two there, and three in another place; then a snow-
storm came on, and the men fled for their lives, leaving the
remaining loads, ropes and all, in the middle of the flood-
plain of a stream. The owner expected to send a new cara-
van in a month or two to get the goods and carry them on to
Yarkand. He knew that they would be safe, for such inci-
dents are common. Custom, stronger than law, binds all
travelers to respect the property thus temporarily left in
the road. We camped at an elevation of 17,400 feet, near
twelve of the bales, which our men used as a wind-break,
unmindful of the carcases of four or five horses lying close
at hand.

We had now reached the centre of the plateau. The next
day, June 2, we crossed the Karakorum pass, 18,300 feet
above the sea, the culminating point of the highest trade
route in the world. In twenty-one miles I counted four
hundred and seventy-four dead horses, not to mention nu-
merous dismembered skeletons, thirty-two bales of mer-
chandise, and one human corpse. His fellows had no time