i6o CHINESE TURKESTAN 



might possibly report the matter, but would be 

 unlikely to make a fuss at the time. 



To Tungalou is twenty-five miles, nearly all 

 through abandoned cultivation. Through a gap in 

 the foot-hills we saw some pine-clad slopes, which 

 looked good ground for wapiti and roe deer, while 

 further back there is a very fine triple peak which 

 towers above the rest, and at a guess I should think 

 must be about 20,000 feet high. About here we 

 passed an immense number of camels laden with 

 wool for Russia ; though how it pays to take it 

 so far is more than I can understand, the more 

 so as it is unwashed and half of its weight must 

 be dirt. 



The road from here to Urumtsi passes through a 

 lot more old cultivation with strips of desert 

 between. The news of our Manas row had 

 preceded us, in consequence of which the small 

 ambans of Hutapi and Changki wqre extremely 

 attentive. There is a coal-mine in the hills near 

 Hutapi, but I do not think that it is worked to any 

 great extent. From Chungki a side road turns 

 down to Urumtsi, the main road to China going on 

 by Kitai and Barkul. 



We arrived at Urumtsi on April i7th, and put 

 up in the old Russian consulate, a good house but 

 inside the town ; the new consulate is some way 

 outside. Urumtsi is on the bank of a river, but in 

 spite of its walls and ditch is hardly to be considered 



