i;8 CHINESE TURKESTAN 



Three of our ponies were so travel-worn that we 

 left them here in Kucha, giving them away as 

 presents, the recipients of which I dare say agreed 

 with Mr. Jorrocks in " confounding all presents what 

 eats." 



We now decided to do all our marching at night, 

 as the heat during the day took it out of our 

 baggage animals very much. 



On the evening of June i8th we started, and 

 after doing sixteen miles, mostly through cultivation, 

 but one piece of desert, we camped in an orchard at 

 about 12 o'clock for the rest of the night. Next 

 afternoon we crossed the Muzart River by ferry, 

 and arrived at Yakchumba, where there is a bazaar, 

 and where we stopped to get barley for the road. 

 The only grain procurable in any quantity in 

 Kucha is Indian corn, on which the ponies do not 

 do so well ; we wanted about forty maunds (one 

 maund = 8o Ibs.), and had hired donkeys to carry 

 it. Having been ordered in advance, the barley 

 ought to have been ready for us, but of course it 

 wasn't ; however, we got it during the next day, and 

 in the evening did another march to the last house, 

 well out in a sea of tamarisk-covered plain, which 

 stretched away in front, and was to all appearance 

 without limit. 



On the evening of the 2ist, after spending a very 

 hot day in the tents, we did twenty-three miles 

 to the next water a brackish pool in an old 



