466 SOUTHERN DZUNGARIA 



hills being free of snow at a season when the plains 

 below were deeply covered. This favourable district, 

 although scarcel}/ used at the present time, is capable of 

 supporting a far larger population. Its value in earlier 

 days is attested by the presence of many old tumuli, as well 

 as a few grave-mounds surrounded by upright stones. 



On reaching the main road at Ta-shih-tu, and finding 

 that our carts had not yet arrived, we decided to spend 

 a few days in the neighbourhood, Miller hunting wild- 

 sheep, which were fairly numerous, while I mapped the 

 most important features of the plateau to our south. 

 The thaw, which had set in a few days previously, was 

 now increased by a strong, hot wind from the south, its 

 effect on the country being magical ; the roads became 

 quagmires, streams began to flow down the valleys, snow- 

 fields — ^previously hard enough to support the traveller — 

 now became serious obstacles, and the bare, frozen soil 

 changed into mud. We were not surprised, therefore, 

 when the carts turned up two days late, having taken 

 three and a half days to do two ordinary stages and 

 having lost one horse, which died on the road. 



Ta-shih-tu consists of only a few houses, but the 

 name will often occur in these pages, there being no other 

 by which to identify this locality, where the northern 

 high-road turns to the south-east and crosses the water- 

 shed between Dzungaria and Chinese Turkestan, and 

 where a side-track leads onwards to Barkul. The 

 actual plateau which the high-road crosses, and which 

 is an important geographical feature, is also nameless ; 

 I shall, therefore, call it the Tou-shui plateau, from the 

 halting-place of that name on the southern side of the 

 watershed. 



Ta-shih-tu stands at an altitude of 5,000 ft., and 



