Ruins of desert Cathay : personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China . on the spot I had little time to spare for suchantiquarian trifles. As soon as the clearing of the isolatedstructure was completed, I moved my band of labourersacross to the south-west, where, at a distance of about onehundred yards from the Stupa, there rose the ruins of alarger structure. It occupied the easternmost portion of aterrace-like piece of ground, about two hundred yards wide,which, owing to the protection afforded by these ruins andthe remains of half-a-dozen less substantial dwelli
Ruins of desert Cathay : personal narrative of explorations in Central Asia and westernmost China . on the spot I had little time to spare for suchantiquarian trifles. As soon as the clearing of the isolatedstructure was completed, I moved my band of labourersacross to the south-west, where, at a distance of about onehundred yards from the Stupa, there rose the ruins of alarger structure. It occupied the easternmost portion of aterrace-like piece of ground, about two hundred yards wide,which, owing to the protection afforded by these ruins andthe remains of half-a-dozen less substantial dwellings, hadescaped being cut up into Yardangs and now stood out asthe centre of the whole ruined area. All around it the soilwas eroded to a depth of twelve feet or more. In the main structure, which appears to have had anenclosure of large sun-dried bricks, the thick walls of threenarrow apartments still rose to a good height. I easilyrecognized the spot where Hedin had come upon his find of Chinese records on paper and wood. He had recoveredforty-two narrow tablets or rather slips, and about two. ii6. REMAINS OF ANCIENT WOVEN FABRICS FROM LOP-NOR SITE. Scale, one-third. 1. Hemp shoe from ruin LA. vi. 2. Slipper from LB. iv., in wool material, woven in coloured Small bale of ancient silk (see p. 381). 4. Fragment of pile carpet in wool from LA. i. cH. XXXII CHINESE RECORDS ON WOOD 383 hundred pieces of paper, including many small fragments,from the rubbish layers which filled the easternmost andnarrowest of these adjoining apartments. In the refusewhich had been thrown out of this and left to litter theslope immediately south, a thorough search still revealedquite a mass of fragments of inscribed paper and the thin curled pieces of wood which formed the majority,it was easy to recognize shavings from Chinese slipsoriginally of the regular size, about nine and a half incheslong and half an inch wide, which had been scraped down inorder to serve again for writing
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1912
