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0398	Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.2

0398

Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2

中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.2

very debouchure. The difficulty of finding water by
which to camp was great, and only the help of some
Chinese whom we discovered grazing their camels near
the route to the Kashkar Pass saved us from serious
trouble. The vast deposits of Piedmont gravel which form
the glacis to the very foot of the range were, it is true,
covered mostly with a thin layer of clay or loess. But the
scrub and grass which grew on it was both scanty and
coarse, clear evidence of the extreme aridity in soil and
atmosphere. What water we had seen leaving the glacis
by the gorge below Shih-pao-chéng was, no doubt, all
derived from springs in which the drainage absorbed
higher up by the beds of gravel came to light again.
Skirting the foot of the main range we then made our
way eastwards into the large valley known as Ta-kung-ch'a,
which receives its drainage from a big snowy massif rising
to close on 20,000 feet. Leaving our camp on a small
grassy plateau above the river bed, which, though deep-cut
and over a quarter-mile wide, held only tiny courses of
water, we rode on July 8th up to the watershed. For about
six miles our route lay in the broad stony bed of the river,
flanked first by conglomerate cliffs, and higher up by sand-
stone rocks in a variety of striking colours—purple, bright
red, and dark green. A sturdy Mongol, whom we found
encamped with his flock on a grassy plot (Fig. 216), served
as guide. He told me curious details about the Dalai-Lama
who had travelled down to An-hsi over the Kashkar Pass
on his flight in 1904, and whose cortège he had again
accompanied more recently when he journeyed back from
Urga to Hsi-ning.
We left the main valley at a point about 12,000 feet
above the sea where it turns eastwards, and continued our
ascent to the south-east by a steeper side valley which, by
slopes of shingle overlying greenish slate and gneiss rock,
brought us to the top of the pass after a total march of
some ten miles. It proved over 13,400 feet in height,
and commanded a wide view to the south, but it was one
distinctly desolate. A bleak basin-like valley lay before
us, fully six to eight miles broad, and bounded southward
by a long range of straggling hills, apparently none

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国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

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国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
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