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0469 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / 469 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
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breaks through. The river had cut its bed too deep to
be visible; but the valleys of all its tributaries on this,
its middle course, lay before us in perfect clearness. The
march down the valley was delightfully easy. Its almost
flat bottom, about three miles broad, was covered with
plentiful coarse grass, and its slope was so gentle that,
when after eight miles or so we pitched camp in a
little amphitheatre of rich meadow-land at the foot of the
range northward, the aneroid still showed an elevation
of over 12,100 feet. Ever since crossing the watershed
we had seen many wild yaks grazing in the ravines just
below the snow-beds. Now we had good reason to
feel grateful for the relics left lower down of their presence
at other seasons; for the only fuel to be found was their
dung which abounded about our camping-ground.
The following day, August 7th, we crossed the To-lai-
shan range. I was anxious to make the passage as far
west as possible, and consequently felt much pleased
when the only man of our escort who had ever been
so far in the mountains confessed to knowing a pass
approached from a point farther down. He called it
Huo-ning-to. Grateful as I felt for the chance it eventu-
ally gave of completing the survey towards the Pei-ta Ho
without descending the valley farther, yet I should have
hesitated in taking this track had I guessed its difficulties.
We had scarcely left the down-like slopes of the main
valley and ascended for about a mile over steep grassy
meadows, when there came a succession of scrambles, most
trying for the laden animals along rugged cliffs where
the ravine debouched from the pass. It would have been
a good day's work for a sapper company to turn this
mile of rock ladders into a safe bridle-path. In the
stream bed itself huge boulders blocked the way. A
series of terraces, high above the stream on the left bank
and covered with luxuriant Alpine pasture, afforded a brief
respite to the animals. Then the ravine contracted again,
and we had to ascend by a breakneck track at its bottom.
At last after a mile and a half's ascent in the boulder-filled
bed, and then over precipitous shingle, we reached the
bare detritus slope at the head of the little valley.