42 SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



PART VII. 



FROM YARKAND TO BURTSI, SOUTH or THE KARAKORAM PASS, via KUGIAR, THE UPPER VALLEY 

 OF THE YARKAND RIVER, AKTAGH, AND THE KARAKORAM PASS. 



[THIS route lies in general considerably to the west of that traversed by Dr. Stoliczka in 

 the preceding autumn. For two marches from Yarkand to Karghalik the road is the same as 

 before ; thence it leads a little west of south across the Kuenluen to the upper valley of the 

 Yarkand river ; it turns eastward up the valley of that stream as far as Aktagh, where it 

 meets the former route, but it then turns southward across the Karakoram pass. The 

 following notes commence from Karghalik and are copied, like those in the preceding section, 

 from the diary.] 



May 31st, Karghalik to BeshtereTc, 20 miles. The first 10 miles over gravelly desert ; 

 thence the road lies up the Kugiar stream, a broad desert valley, nearly a couple of 

 miles wide. Gravel beds, as much as 150 feet thick in places, extend up to the village : they 

 are evidently alluvial, and not Artysh beds, though the reddish sandstones at Bora * belong 

 to the latter. Loass rests on the gravel, and in places has been re-deposited by the river and 

 stratified. There is a good deal of this stratified loess in the valley itself, but it is chiefly 

 sand. 



June 1st, Kugiar, 17 miles. For 14 miles the road lay across desert, over some- 

 what elevated terrace land of sand and gravel. About 4 miles north of Kugiar, Artysh 

 beds, clayey sandstone, and fine conglomerate are seen below horizontal beds of diluvial 

 gravel. Further on, they again entirely disappear under the diluvial terraces, which rise 

 about 200 feet above the elevated ground. The amount of sand, clay, and gravel brought 

 from the hills is something enormous. The Artysh beds evidently form the axis of the low 

 ridge, which runs from east to west, about 4 or 5 miles north of Kugiar ; but they are covered 

 with diluvial gravel. 



June 2nd, Ak Masjid, about 27 miles. The first half of the road is entirely over gravel 

 beds, then a grey dolomite begins to crop out. The beds undulate, but the general dip is 

 north : not a trace of a fossil could be detected. Further on, close to camp, a reddish, some- 

 what silicious sandstone, and thin-bedded streaked limestone of the same colour, with a high 

 northerly dip, underlies the grey dolomite, and rests upon other grey and whitish dolomitic 

 limestone, less distinctly stratified. As a rule, dust covers all the slopes of the hills so thickly 

 that, except on a precipitous cliff, not a trace of solid rock can be seen. In the valley, loess 

 attains a thickness of fully 30 feet ; it is partly stratified, but the accumulation appears 

 mostly due to moisture. 



June 3rd, ChikliJc, 13 miles. Up to the foot of the pass the grey limestone rock continues, 

 gradually becoming in places thinner bedded, streaked, and metamorphic. Near the foot 

 of the pass it changes to a stratified chloritic rock, while the grey limestone occupies the 



1 These were noticed in Part III, and were observed on the road between Sanju and Yarkand ; ante, p. 22. 



