TRANS-HIMALAYAN EXPLORATION.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15603, 30 May 1916, Page 9

TRANS-HIMALAYAN EXPLORATION.

SIR ATTREL STEDTS "WORK

("Times" and "Sydney Sun" Servioe».) (Received May 29th, 5.5 p.m.) London, May 29. Sir Aurel Stein has arrived after thirty months of travel iu Eastern an<l "Western China, the Russian Pamirs, Russian Turkestan, Persia, and Afghanistan. In all lie inarched over 11,000 miles.

Few records of travel luivo such inherent fascination, as the story of ir Aurel Stem's wanderings since two years and seven mouths ago' lie h* : t liis ivasninir base to explore the little known mountains and valleys of the trans-Himalayan borderland (.says the "Pionoer Maji," India). On July Gth Sir Aurel Stein left Kashgar after having completed the careiul repacking of eighty neavy camel-loads ol antiques for transport across tne Karakoram to India. Their transport over tlio high passes was a tedious and difficult undcruikiug; but it is satisfactory to note that the collection safeiy reached Kashmir by November. Meanwhile Sir Aurel Stein and his companions were journeying westward across the Russian Pamirs to tho mountain tracts north of the Oxus. The improvement iu Angloltussian relations of recent years is strikingly illustrated by the courtesy of the llussian authorities to Sir Aurel Stein, and tho facilities . which they readily afforded hini on his journey across ground in parts never visited hefore by any British traveller. To study questions of historical geography on tho spot was ono of the chief objects of Sir Aurcl's journey; and on his march down the Alai Valley ho was able to trace additional indications supporting tho belief that through it nassed tho route which the ancient silk" traders followed from Bactria to '"the conntry of tho Seres" or China, as described 'by Marinus of Tyre. He conic:; to the conclusion that the latter s "Stone Tower" should probably be placed above Dr.raut-Kurghan, where tho route iri> Kara-tegin, tho only dircct one between ancient Bactria and Eastern Turkestan practicable throughout for laden camels, emerges upon tho Alai. Oil his journey up the narrow gorges of the Bartang, Sir Aurel Stein was able to note considerable geographical changes as a result of-the groat earthquake of 1910. What tracts had pre-. viously existed in the valley have been destroyed by huge landslips; and it took three days' narct scrambling aiong spurs , almost impassabic for load-currying men and over vast slopes of rock dutiris to reach tho point wiicro tiio lail of a whole mountain has completely blocked tho and converteu the so-caiicd Sarez Pamir into a fine Alpine lake over firteen miles long and still spreading up tho vaiiev. With, tiio experience gained of tho newly-found big lake fresh ueiore hiai, ho found it easy to recognise thoso topographical features which point to tho leenil-kol lake having como into existence as li-hc result of a similar cataclysm at some earlier period. His subsequent journey dpwn the Oxus was attenued by an abunddnt harvest of observations on tho historical topo'grapny, arciueoiogy and ethnography of \vathan, which, in eariy timet; nad formed an important thoroughiaro between Bactria, India, and tne Central Asian territories of China." The exact survey of a series of ruined strongholds, somo of considerable extent, biougnb to light numerous features of arciueoI logical interest, and led him to. tho conclusion that- theso hill fastnesses dato back to p re-Mohammedan times and to epoch. when tliis portion ofJ tlio Oxus Valley contained a far denser population tnan at present. Certain architectural details suggested a period corresponding to lato indo-Scythian, or early Sassanian domination; i (l iom the Ghund Valley,. Sir Aurel. crossed into Roshan by the difficult gla-cier pass of Shitam, over 16,000 feet high. From tho ice-crowned watershed there opened a glorious vista over tlio rolling uplands of Badakhshan, a region which still remains inaccessible. Then, crossing the glacier pass of Adudo, he made his way into tho Zazghulam and Vanj valleys of Darwaz, whero the territory of the Amir of Bukhara -was entered. Tho Sitargli Pass with its badly-crovassed glacier, was crossed just in time before the first heavy snowfall closed it; and the expedition gained by tho Gardan-i-Kaftar Pass the main valley of KaraI tegin. Finally, on October 22nd, ho reached Samarkand and the railway, aftor & journey lasting just oyer three months, within which a total distance of 1700 miles had been covered. Tho -winter was spent in Seistan, where much useful work, geographical and arch£eological, was carried out. It was Sir Aurel Stem's hope that among its numerous ruined sites he could find remains of tho periods when ancient" Sakastana served as an outpost of liar and the Hellenistic Near Last toward; Buddhist India. His explorations ir the Tarim basin provided a strong additional incentivo; for the striking analogy presented by various physical features of the terminal basin, of the Helmand Elver seemed' likely •to throw light on more than one geographical question connected with the dried-up delta round Lop-nor. In botli directions his hopes nave been fully justified by the results of his Seistan work. His archaeological researches were rewarded at the very start by an important disco vcrry. llio extensive ruins situated on tho Koh-i-Khwaja hill, which risGs as a conspicuous landmaik above the Hamuns, or terminal marshes of the Helmand, wero found to contain, the remains of a large Buddhist sanctuary, the first ever traced on Iranian soil. Their location at a fiito which to this day h as retained special sanctity for the Mohammedans of Seistan, once again strikingly illustrates the continuity of local -worship. Hidden behind later masonry, there camo to light remarkable fresco remains which undoubtedly date back to Sassanian times. Further search in a gallery below the main templo revealed wall paintings of a distinctly Hellenistic type. These pictorial relics illustrate for the first time "in situ" the Iranian link of the chain which connects the Grscco-Buddhist art or the extreme north-west of India with the Buddhist art of Central Asia and the Far East. The architectural features of the ruins were also of great interest, reflecting that connexion with equal clearness. Remains of much earlier times were disclosed by Sir Aurel Stein's survey of the desert south. There in an area once watered by an abandoned old branch of the Helmand excessive wind-erosion acting on_ _ alluvial clay, had produced conditions exactly resembling those with which he had become so familiar in the dried-up delta north of Lop-nor. The scouring bv wind-driven sand had here lowered the original ground level to varying depths, down to twenty feet or more, except where the surface had been protected by hard debris of some kind. The erosion terraces thus left rising : island-like above the bare plain were always found covered with prehistoric remains consisting of potsherds, often and stone implements mainly of the Neolithic period, But in places including also relics of the Bronze age. Here a rich and interesting archaeological harvest could he picked ud literally on the surface. In a portion of this desert area Mohammedan ruins attested a temporarv return of the fertilism™ river water during a relatively recent period. But of far greater interest wns the unexnoctod discoverv of a close line of ancient waV-h j stations stretching riirht across the • de.-ert "from the southernmost Hnmun 1 in the direction of the salt basin of the I Gand-i-Zirreh. The experience trained durins his explorations along the an-

' cienfc Chinese wall discovered in 1907 in the desert of Tui:-ln;ang helped Sir Aurel greatly in tracing this Seistan i "Limes." Tlio fortified i'rontier posts, solidly built after a uniform pattern, were found .ilways to occupy erosion terraces, chosen 110 doubt for the sake of increased command of ground, at distances from half to about one and a half miles.apart. The position of sectional headquarters eculd also be identified. A variety, of archaeological finds and observations points to the early centuries of our era. as the time when this ancient border line was established. Il was intended to the cultivated portion of the Helmand delta from raids of nomadic tribes south. The Analogy presented to the ancient Chinese frontier lino of Kan-su constructed circa. 100 B.C. against Hun raids from Turkestan is certainly very curious : and Sir Aurel Stein suggests that this fortified Seistan border may constitute a link between that old "Chinese Wall" in the desert and the "Limes" lires by which Imperial Rome protected its marshes in the Near East and elsewhere.