KORLA TO KUCHA 175 



which is over another stony waste, we arrived at 

 Kucha, and camped in a pleasant orchard in the 

 outskirts of the town. 



Here we remained seven days, giving both ponies 

 and men a necessary rest after such hard marching. 

 It was still a far cry to Ladak, and though we were 

 anxious to get on as fast as possible, it would not do 

 to march the animals to death. 



For the first two days or so it was rather pleasant 

 having nothing to do, and we luxuriated in idleness, 

 but after that it began to get irksome. One blessing 

 was that for some reason or other there were no 

 mosquitoes in our orchard. The fruit was not ripe 

 yet, with the exception of mulberries, which we had 

 got for some days past, the apricots being still too 

 green to venture on ; but we got a fair supply of 

 vegetables. 



There is of course an amban here, the place 

 being a big one, probably nearly as big as Kashgar, 

 but we did not make his acquaintance. We sent up 

 our passports and cards, and three begs came to see ? 



us ; but as the great man had not the good manners 

 to send his card in^reurn, we saw no reason for 

 calling on him. 



The road by which we came from Korla is the 

 main one, and runs close under the hills the whole 

 way ; but the weather was so hazy with dust that we 

 never saw more than the first range of foot-hills, and 

 not always even that. 



