MARALBASHI TO AKSU 47 



salt as it can be to be drinkable at all. Away to 

 the north we saw some hills, but the weather was 

 so hazy that we could not be sure whether there 

 was snow on them or not, so they may or may not 

 have been the main range of the Tian Shan. Near 

 Sierat we again entered a cultivated country, and 

 the next day, after about nineteen miles, reached the 

 Aksu River, which is split into several branches in 

 a broad and gravelly bed ; only the main channel 

 is crossed by a ferry-boat, the side streams being 

 fordable. Some two miles on we camped in an 

 orchard, just short of Aksu Yangi Shahr, the new 

 city where the Chinese live ; the old Turki city, the 

 Khona Shahr, is about four miles further on. The 

 Chinese city is, as usual, fortified with a wall and 

 ditch, and also, as usual, when it is possible, is 

 placed just under some rising ground which com- 

 pletely commands it. 



From here we got our first view of the Tian 

 Shan, a snow-clad range dominated by the mighty 

 peak of Khan Tengri, 24,000 feet high, a truly 

 magnificent and imposing mass of mountain which 

 seems to rise sheer from the plain. 



