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0491 On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1
中央アジア踏査記 : vol.1
On Ancient Central-Asian Tracks : vol.1 / 491 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000214
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thus effected furnished strong grounds for the belief that
the area over which the Kucha oasis extended in T'ang
times must have demanded for its cultivation means of
irrigation greatly in excess of those now available.

The conclusion seemed clearly indicated that the dis-
charge of the two rivers feeding the canals of Kucha has
considerably diminished since the Buddhist period. But
here as in the case of the Khotan oasis, which in many
respects shows aspects curiously corresponding to those of
Kucha, antiquarian evidence does not allow us definitely
to answer the questions to what extent this diminution was
the direct cause for the abandonment during historical
times of once irrigated ground and by what stages it pro-
ceeded. But the fact itself of the reduced volume of water
in these rivers deserves to be kept in view when considering
the much-discussed problem of 'desiccation' in Central Asia.

On my first brief visit to Kucha in January 1908 I had
started from here for the difficult and in some ways dis-
tinctly risky journey which carried me south from the Tarim
across the forbidding wastes of the Taklamakan to where the
Keriya river dies away amidst the dunes. In Desert Cathay
I have fully recorded the anxious experiences we went
through on that rather adventurous journey, and even if
I could spare room here to relate them afresh it would
mean too great a digression from the ground that concerns
us here.

By the beginning of May I started from Kucha westwards,
not without regret at having to leave the verdure of its fine
orchards and its attractive people, genial and polite, just as
the Chinese records describe them in ancient times. Afrazgul
Khan was sent to map the old and shortest route to Aksu