National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

> > > >
Color New!IIIF Color HighRes Gray HighRes PDF   Japanese English
0314 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / Page 314 (Color Image)

New!Citation Information

doi: 10.20676/00000214
Citation Format: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR Text

There are numerous records among the documents from
the *Limes* containing indents for the issue of fresh arrows
as well as for crossbows to replace others returned in a
damaged state.

About five miles to the east of the site of the ancient
'Jade Gate' there rises close by the caravan road and well
behind the line of the wall a very imposing ruin (Fig. 78).
With its three big halls adjoining one another in a continuous
block and extending over a total length of some 560 feet, this
structure was at first very puzzling. Its very thick walls of
solid stamped clay, though still rising to fully twenty-five
feet in places, showed but few openings and those evidently
meant for ventilation. There was an outer enclosure and
an inner one flanked by towers at the corners. The structural
peculiarities led us before long to guess that this strange pile
had served as a supply magazine for the troops stationed
or moving along the wall and for officials and political
missions travelling by the desert route. This has been fully
confirmed by the Chinese records recovered from refuse in
a corner of an inner enclosure; for these tell us of deliveries
of grain, brought from the Tun-huang oasis; of suits of
clothing stored, etc. So here we had found that advance
base of supplies, which was so much needed both for the
troops guarding the desert border and for those using the
difficult route to or from Lou-lan.

Here we may take our leave of this western portion of the
ancient Chinese *Limes*. I had carried its exploration as far
as the eastern end of the Khara-nor when, by the middle of
May 1907, the increasing heat, scarcely relieved by recur-
ring sand-storms, together with other trials of the desert and
the exhaustion of the men, obliged me to regain the oasis.