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0597	Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2
中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.2

0597

Ruins of Desert Cathay : vol.2

中国砂漠地帯の遺跡 : vol.2

short march of only a little over ten miles we were obliged
to pitch camp in the midst of towering dunes. Luckily
here, too, depressions showing damp soil were frequent, and
the well we dug in one of them yielded water at five and a
half feet, somewhat less brackish than at the previous camp,
but too scanty to save much of our ice.

Next day, February 2nd, we had a desolate march
under a grey sky heavy with clouds, amidst high bare
dunes rolling on all sides like the waves of a 'choppy'
sea. The first five miles lay over a regular Dawan of
closely packed ridges rising to fifty and eighty feet above
the rare depressions. It was well that I could encourage my
men by pointing to signs of moisture in the latter. With
some relief, too, we sighted towards the evening two big
Dawans to the south-west and south-east, perhaps marking
the last offshoots of the high ridges of sand which flanked
the course of the Keriya River. The dunes grew perfectly
bare after about ten miles, and the apprehension about fuel
obliged us to stop at the first dead tamarisk cone we
encountered. In a crater-like depression a well was dug
which at a depth of only five feet gave us water sufficient
for the men and ponies with only a slight taste of saltness.

Next morning, after three miles' weary tramp along the
crests of huge dunes (Fig. 281), we emerged upon a broad
belt of living poplars and tamarisks. It was a strange
sight, this strip of vegetation stretching away to the north-
east for at least six miles, and for two more to south-
south-west. It took us nearly a mile to cross it. The
trees were all growing on small sand-cones, as I had seen
them often in the desert beyond the Niya and Endere
Rivers. The dunes between were like dwarfs by the side
of the mighty swellings of bare drift sand we had just
crossed. The direction of this jungle belt was clearly the
same as that of the lowest Keriya River.

After we had crossed it, a thin line of living trees still
remained in view both on our right and left, though at a
distance. They helped to keep up the spirits of our hapless
Shahyar men, who no longer believed that they were being
led to their doom, but fondly fancied the Keriya River to be
quite near. It cost me some effort to undeceive them.
VOL. II 2 C

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 『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

引用情報

OCR読み取り結果

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