THE KARLIK TAGH 525 



southern side of the KarHk Tagh. Taking only two men 

 and a horse-load of necessaries, with a paper from the 

 Khan which enabled me to get a change of horses and 

 guides at everj^ village, I made a rapid survey of the 

 country between the Barkul passes and the sources of 

 the Bardash River. 



South-west of Tomdun was the Belju Pass, the only 

 track that crosses the Karlik Tagh, and this at a con- 

 siderable height ; at the summit of close on 11,000 ft., 

 snow-storms assailed me, hiding the views and hampering 

 my work. This pass led me down to the Koral Valley, 

 which, with its fine forests and open areas capable 

 of cultivation, and, consequently, its numerous villages, 

 formed one of the most important and beautiful valleys 

 in the Karlik Tagh. Its almost continuous line of culti- 

 vation, its hamlets, and the three villages of Temirty, 

 Koral, and Narin, gave the valley an appearance of 

 much industry. The Taghliks had cultivated almost 

 impregnable tracts of land high up the mountain-side, 

 by irrigating them with canals, the building of which 

 showed considerable ingenuity and labour. The hills 

 were subject to such denudation that the canals had 

 to be built up annually, and in some places the 

 water was carried for miles by aqueducts of hollowed 

 poplar-trunks. The largest centre of agriculture was at 

 Narin, the junction of the two valleys of the Koral and 

 Narin. Beyond Narin the sandstone border-ridges shut 

 off these highland villages from the plain. 



From Koral a climb up a steep face of 3,000 ft. took 

 me across the ridge dividing this valley from the next 

 — the Edira, where I found other small settlements of 

 Taghliks farming in quiet seclusion the small patches 

 of land nature allowed them, and keeping a few cattle, 



