CHAPTER \'I. 

 Bv AX Unknown Route to the Kulan Urgu Valley. 



The date of my arrival in the Yarkand Valley synchronised 

 with the maximum rise in the river, usually reached about the 

 end of May or beginning of June. It was hopeless trying to 

 proceed down the river by the left bank, so the only course open 

 was to ford to the opposite side and work my way down the right 

 bank. I therefore went up the river for some considerable 

 distance, over some very nasty slopes, bare of rock or stone, 

 but none the less dangerous since the bottom ended in a precipice 

 beneath which the Yarkand River rolled and splashed in all its 

 might and majesty. 



The valley was here about half a mile in breadth, both sides 

 shut in by high ranges of mountains, the ground along the river 

 banks being covered in places with a reed undergrowth known in 

 this part of the country as " khamish." Here and there clumps of 

 trees afford a certain amount of firewood to those who pass this 

 way, which I should say is very seldom, for the valley in addition 

 to being extraordinarily hard to penetrate, is much harder to 

 find a way out of. 



The width of the river where I forded it is about two hundred 

 and fifty yards, the current sw4ft, and the water a deep mud colour. 

 To gain the opposite bank was now a problem to be solved and one 

 that bid fair to offer more than the usual run of excitement. The 

 guide I had brought with me from the Hi Su chose a point some 

 way up the Raskum Valley where the river ran in three channels 

 and the dangers of crossing would be to some extent minimised, 

 in consequence of the water being distributed over a great area 

 with a proportionate decrease in the depth. So, confiding myself 



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