TAKSAN TO KORLA 171 



day we made Korla, half-way to which the plain 

 comes to an end. The road meets the river, which 

 is the outflow from Lake Bagrash, and the two run 

 through a valley which forms a curious gap in the 

 hill-range separating Korla from Karashahr. Near 

 the entrance to this valley we saw some slag in the 

 road and some old pit-mouths close by. We were 

 told that there used to be both copper and coal- 

 mines here, but that the former are now no longer 

 worked at all, and the latter very little. 



The river is rapid and broken, the water beauti- 

 fully clear and full of fish. All the mud must settle 

 down in the lake, as the river near Karashahr is 

 dirty enough, /s v are most snow-fed streams at this 

 season. 



Korla is not a big city, but there is a great extent 

 of cultivation round it and any quantity of trees ; in 

 fact, it is the best-timbered place that I have seen in 

 Central Asia. 



Very glad we were to leave the Tungans and 

 Chinese behind and again reach a real Mussulman 

 country, where the people are Yarkandis, or at 

 least 6f the same race, where they do. make some 

 attempt at keeping their villages clean, and where 

 the entire population does not assemble to stare, 

 point, and make remarks as though one were a 

 gratuitous raree show. Theoretically, I suppose, 

 one ought to get used to this in course of time, but 

 in practice the case is quite the reverse. 



