National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.1 |
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438 THE RUINED FORT OF MIRAN CH. XXXVIII
we were digging at Miran they would recover sufficiently to be able to take charge subsequently of the convoy of
antiques I intended to send back from my Abdal depot,
and to escort it safely to Kashgar. Half of the hired
Charchan camels, too, were no longer fit for work, illi
and had to be paid off to return to their oasis. Those
raised at Charklik similarly showed signs of exhaustion,
and could not be reckoned upon for the long journey
through the desert.
Our marches to Miran lay along the route followed
before and were uneventful. There was but little wind,
and that from the south, where the view of the mountains ~~
was now completely effaced by a dust haze. On approach-
ing Miran late in the evening of January 23rd I was la'
surprised to find that we had to cross a thin sheet of ice el
spread out for more than a mile's width before we reached iii
the edge of vegetation. This wide and shallow bed of it
gravel had on our passage in December been completely it
dry and bare. Tokhta Akhun explained that this happens 1r
every winter. Evidently when the water in the actual ill
river bed gets frozen hard, the supply furnished by springs h
rising in the bed at the foot of the gravel glacis is il
forced to make its way laterally, and being protected from ill
evaporation by the cold spreads itself more widely than it ifi
can at any other season. di
It was again in complete darkness that we made ii
our way to the jungle belt by the river. But we had V
spied a fire to guide us, and by its side there waited ti
dear Chiang-ssû-yeh, quaint old Mullah, and a dozen of `
Lopliks from Abdal to give us a joyful welcome. In ,i
obedience to my original order they had camped here
ti
patiently for a week past in readiness for fresh excava-
tions. It was delightful to be reunited once more to
my devoted Chinese helpmate. Since, alas ! no corre-
spondence mutually intelligible could pass between us, t
there were plenty of details to tell him of our work and
experiences as I sat by his camp fire, and, refreshed by d
his hospitable ministrations, waited and waited till the 1
baggage arrived late at night. i
The night, with a minimum of only 15 degrees of frost, I
'~5..
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