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0464 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / Page 464 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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washers and small channels dug to carry the needful water.
Of the gold-washers' hovels nothing remained but small
shapeless lines of rubble ; there was nothing to determine
how long they had been deserted.

As we moved south towards the watershed between
the Hong-shui-pa Ho and the Kan-chou River, the ground
became more and more boggy. The snow had melted
here but recently, and evidently the soil was unable to
absorb all this moisture. At last, as it was getting dark,
we arrived at the miners' camp known as Ta-pen-ko, at an
elevation of over 13,400 feet. The pits, no longer worked,
had been cut into the edge of the watershed. In their
midst stood two hovels built of boulders and cut turf, giving
shelter to some twenty men working pits lower down to the
south. They were hardy Tungans from the Hsi-ning side,
whom a more venturesome disposition made brave the
rigours of this terribly exposed upland (Fig. 234). Our
twenty odd Chinese quickly huddled up with them. The
ground along the ridge was so spongy and peat-like that it
took time before a spot sufficiently firm and dry could be
found for my tent. A bitterly cold south-west wind had
followed the shower of sleet, and my Turkestan followers
were not without reason venting their feelings against the
perversity of those 'heathen Khitais' who had brought us
out of our way to this bleak spot.