The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-12-08
FINDS ANCIENT
RECORDS IN ASIA
English Explorer Finds Old
World Trading Route Is
Guarded by Forts.

LONDON, Nov. 19.-DlSpatches which
have been received from DR.. NJ. A.
Stein make it abundantly evident that
that distinguished explorer is accumu-
Iating data Of the greatest geographic
cal and archaeological interest on the
expedition through Central Asia, on
which he has now been engaged for
nearly a year and a half past.
Previous advices brought the story
of DR.. STEMS journey along the south
ern borders of the great Turkestan
desert down to February last, at
which time he was able to report the
results of an interesting series Of in
vestigations among the sand buried
ruins in the desert north and south of
Lop Nor. Towards the end of Febru-
airy he resumed his journey eastward,
passing along the same route that
Marco Polo had followed between six
and seven centuries earlier.
This Old World trading route, DR..
Stein announces, is again coming into
favor with traders from Khotan and
Kashgar, and it is noteworthy not only
that the revival in it's Importance coin
cides with a marked increase in the
prosperity of the GASES to the. south of
the desert, but that British piece goods
form no inconsiderable proportion of
the merchandise which is being i'm
ported by this route into Western
China.
Geographically, DR.. Stein found that
the country traversed offered. an in
tensely interesting field for study. His
own observations have been supple,
mented by surveys of Raj Ram Singh,
the native surveyor attached to the ex-
petition by the Indian survey depart
ment, and, among other results, it has
been discovered that the Khara Nora
large lake already known to receive
two considerable rivers from the south
and east-discharges its waters west
ward during the spring and early
summer by a river which, after drain
ing some smaller lakes and marshes,
penetrates the desert for distance of
nearly sixty miles.
But the main object of the expedi-
ton is archaeological research, and Dr.
Stein was delighted when, at a point
where he had still to look forward to
five long marches to the basis of Sha-
chou, he came on the first of a series
of ruined watch towers forming a
chain of frontier posts connected by
an> ancient wall.
Afrer recuperating at Sha-chou, the
expedition traced this line of frontier
defence works for a distance of lao
miles, and DR.. stein is convinced, as
the result of his examination of the
Chinese records found among the ruins |
an examination in which he was added /
by a scholarly Chinese assistant, that !
the works in question date back as far /
as the end of the second century b. c. |
Garrisons must have occupied the sta |
tions for something like $50 years, and |
documents relating to the first quarter I
of the second century A. D. were found /
to be especially numerous.
Altogether something like 1000 Chi |
nese documents were unearthed, mostly I
relating to military matters, but also |
a number of private let |
tiers, whose personal details gave a |
vivid human interest to these records |
of a distant past. In addition, DR.. |
Stein discovered abundant evidences |
of the traffic that even then passed |
overland between India, and possibly |
even Persia, on the west, and the Chi |
nese empire on the east by way of this |
remote corner of Central Asia.
The excellent state Of preservation |
in which all the remains were found |
affords conclusive proof of the scanty /
rainfall in the region traversed by the |
line of frontier posts, not only at the |
present day, but for the past 1000 |
years. Sometimes the records were
buried under the thinnest covering of
soil, yet even the most perishable arti-
cles had preserved a perfectly fresh
appearance.
But if there is little rainfall, winds
from the east and northeast blow over
the country with remarkable violence
and persistence, and are rendered all
the more trying by the extremes of
experienced. So late as
he beginning of April the thermome-
.er registered, at the coolest part OF |
he day, 40 degrees, Of frost, Fahren-
lett, while before the end of the month
he travellers were suffering from the
leat and glare of the sun, with the adj
led torment, when the wind dropped,
# swarms of mosquitoes.
Not until well into May was work
along the line of frontier
costs, and subsequently DIR. Stein was
AepC DuSliy occupied LOT SoIie "SShS
mong ancient sites to the south of the
,ha-chou oasis. A particularly fine
cries of frescoes and stucco sculp-
ures, dating back a thousand years
nd illustrating the hold which Bud
hism and Buddhist art had been OBJ
aimed on the country, was discovered
n the remarkable cave temples known
$ the Halls of the Thousand Bud
has.
In short, so extensive have been the
objections formed by DIR. Stein, that
hey will. he declares, provide several
pecialists with material for examina-
ion for a, long time to come.