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| 0397 |
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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town'' of my present quest had to be reached from where the river
dies away in the sand. Its course proved almost as winding as that
of the Keriya Darya, but its volume far smaller. Just like the river
of Keriya, the Niya stream gathers water from springs and marshes
a short distance below the town. This is, of course, the water that
has been absorbed higher up by irrigation channels, and comes
again to the surface lower down. Very soon after losing sight of
the cultivated area we were in a broad belt of jungle land covered
with luxuriant Kumush and forest vegetation. The sands receded
to more than two miles from the left river-bank, and nearly as much
from the right. The route, owing to the large number of pilgrims
who annually frequent Imam Jafar's Mazar in the autumn, had the
well-trodden look of a high-road. On the first day it touched again
and again the bank of the stream, now a glittering sheet of ice. Its
breadth was there usually 30–35 yards, its depth as far as I could
ascertain from holes that had been cut into the thick ice, nowhere
more than about 3 feet. As the banks were only about 2–3 feet
above the surface of the ice, it is probable that during the time of
the melting snows a good deal of overflow must occur. This may
account for the luxuriance of the jungle growth that distinguishes
the riverine belt. The grazing-grounds of the Niya shepherds
begin, therefore, close below the little oasis, and evidently main-
tain a considerable number of flocks. They are said to be
divided among ten shepherd stations, and all belong to 'Bais'
of Niya.
The thought that all this fertile stretch of ground might well be
brought under cultivation had occupied me as I rode along. It was,
therefore, a pleasant sight to me when a little below Nagara-khana,
the shepherd's hut where my first night's camp had been pitched, I
came upon the head of a canal begun only two years previously
under the Amban's orders. From this point, which is about nineteen
miles distant from Niya Bazar, the fertile belt of soil widened
considerably, and the ridges of the desert sand disappeared from
view. The river winds away on the eastern side, while the route
led through the central part of what looked like a small tract of
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