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0554 Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.2
Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2 / 554 ページ(カラー画像)

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doi: 10.20676/00000213
引用形式選択: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR読み取り結果

In spite of all the interest of its ruins I was glad by
December 1st to set out again from Turfan; for now the
increasing cold warned me that it was high time to regain
the basin of the Tarim for the winter's work in the desert.
Rai Lal Singh was sent due south to Singer in the heart
of the Kuruk-tagh in order to explore some desert plateaus
and hill ranges hitherto unsurveyed westwards, while I
myself covered in eight rapid marches the 180 odd miles
to Kara-shahr.

As soon as we had descended from the gorges of the
barren hills (Fig. 258), connecting Kuruk-tagh and T'ien-
shan, into the great scrub-covered plain which encircles
the northern shores of Lake Baghrash, ancient sites of
some size could be traced near several points of the route.
But the vicinity of subsoil water, generally impregnated
with salts, and the effects of a climate evidently less dry
than in other parts of the great Turkestan basin, had
completely destroyed all structural remains, and reduced
even the clay-built town walls to mere shapeless mounds of
earth. This difference in climate had, as I soon found,
left its mark also ethnically upon the Kara-shahr region,
the Yen-ch'i of early Chinese records; for, attracted, no
doubt, by the more abundant grazing, not only were there
Mongols in the higher valleys, but small settlements of
them had taken to semi-nomadic life involving temporary
cultivation in the great plain watered by the Kara-shahr
River. This, together with the numerous colonies of
Tungans brought here since the rebellion, gave quite a
peculiar aspect to the population of the district headquarters.

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