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172
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ AUGUST. 1917
when it approached at a slant a forbidding belt of salt-coated erosion terraces clearly of the type to which the Chinese of Han times had applied the graphic designation of "White Dragon Mounds." I knew it foreboded the close vicinity of that ancient sea-bed encrusted with hard crumpled salt which I was anxious to steer clear of as long as possible, on account of the terrible surface it would present for our poor camels' feet. They were sore already and the painful process of "re-soling " had to be resorted to night after night. I was just preparing to climb the prominent mesha which had served as our guiding point and to use it as a look-out, when we found on its slopes Chinese coins, soon followed by quite a collection of metal objects, including bronze ornaments and a well-preserved dagger and bridle in iron. Evidently the terrace had served as a regular halting-place, and a careful inspection of the ground ahead suggested that it had been used for this purpose, because at its foot was the first piece of ground level and tolerably clear of salt which travellers would strike after passing through the forbidding maze of “White Dragon Mounds" and the dried-up sea-bottom beyond.
I had to decide whether I was to strike across the latter now or to skirt the ancient seashore by continuing the north-east course, which threatened to take us further and further away from where we hoped to find water. It might have meant a détour of days, and the interpretation I put on our lucky find encouraged me to avoid this by heading straight for the dead salt sea. That evening we had reached its shore-line, and the crossing effected next day proved how wise the change of direction had been. The march across thu petrified sea, with its hard salt crust crumpled up into knife-like small pressure ridges, was a most trying experience for camels and us men alike. But when this weary tramp of 20 miles, more fatiguing than any I ever had in the desert, had safely brought us to the first spot of soft salt in front of the opposite line of salt-covered erosion terraces, and we could halt for a night's rest, I had good reason to feel glad for my choice and grateful for the find which had prompted it. As the following marches proved, we had crossed the forbidding sea of hard crumpled salt at the very point where it was narrowest, and had thus escaped a night's halt on ground where neither beast nor man could have found a spot to rest in comfort. It was, no doubt, this advantage which had determined those old Chinese pioneers in the choice of this line for their route.
Helped by finds of coins and the like, we continued to track the route over ground still absolutely barren, until we reached, three days later, the last offshoot of the low desert range which overlooks from the north the extreme eastern extension of the ancient dried-up sea-bed. Then, as we skirted its shore-line under steep cliffs looking exactly like those of a sea still in being I had the satisfaction of finding the ancient track in places still plainly marked in the salt-encrusted ground. It was a strange sensation when my eyes first caught the straight line of the ancient road, where it cuts for nearly 2 miles across a small bay of the petrified sea. It showed a uniform width of some 20 feet, and was worn down to a depth of about 1 foot in the surface of hard salt cakes, as a result of the passage for centuries of transport animals, and probably carts too. There was ocular evidence here of the magnitude of the traffic which had once moved through these barren solitudes. But how those patient old Chinese organizers of transport had maintained it over some 150 miles of ground without water, fuel, or grazing still remains somewhat of a problem.
! To be continued.)
