Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / 156 ページ（カラー画像）

0156	Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.2

0156

Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2

中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.2

separated by many winding depressions. A large-scale map
would be needed to show properly this intricate configura-
tion of the ground, which resembled a strongly developed
coast line with flat tongues of land left between a complex
system of bays and inlets. The larger depressions were
partly filled by spring-fed marshes, in places over a mile
broad. Dense reed-beds fringed the sheets of open
water, and salt-covered bogs extended farther away in the
line of the drainage north-westwards. Elsewhere all trace
of water had disappeared from the surface; but tamarisk
bushes and other hardy scrub mingling with thin reed
growth, as well as the salt-efflorescence, showed that sub-
soil water was near in these Nullahs. The marshes and
salt-encrusted bogs were quite impassable for our ponies, and
often détours of miles round their edges or over strips of
less treacherous ground were needed to take us from one
tower or mound to another.

Then, when these swamps had been successfully taken,
like ditches in an obstacle race, came the still more exciting
search for the remains of the old wall. This, I soon learned,
had been carried unfailingly over every bit of firm ground
capable of offering a passage for the enemy's inroads and
right down to the edge of the marshy inlets (Fig. 176). In
fact, I convinced myself from ample evidence that this align-
ment of the wall had been purposely chosen by the old
Chinese engineers in order to supplement their line by
natural defences, and thus to save labour of construction.

Where the soil was soft and scrub-covered, as near the
marshes, the eye often failed at first to discover any trace
of the agger; for the remains of the rampart constructed
with alternating layers of earth and reed fascines had here
decayed badly owing to the moisture rising from the ground.
The remains were obscured besides by the coarse vegeta-
tion which finds nourishment in this salt-permeated soil.
But when we had gained once more the bare gravel
plateau, a search along its edges would soon reveal the
familiar track of the wall.

Over considerable stretches the wall still rose to a con-
spicuous height, attracting the eye from afar (Fig. 175).
Either some peculiarity in the constructive use of the

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