542 ACROSS DZUNGARIA 



country. At present both the Manas River and the 

 highway afforded by its banks are wasted. 



The Manas River is a feature of immense importance 

 in a land so barren ; this is proved by the fact that 

 no other practical route leads across Dzungaria to the 

 east, the Chinese having taken advantage of the oppor- 

 tunities it offers by planning a route which should 

 connect their capital with the projected new city of 

 Sharasume, or Altai ; it also represents the shortest and 

 most direct road to the frontier town of Chuguchak 

 as well as to the important trade-centre of Zaisan. The 

 only signs we found of the existence of communication 

 between north and south by this route were a caravan 

 of a hundred bullock-carts, laden with hides, bound for 

 Chuguchak, which we passed on the road a few days 

 north of Manas ; and a line of telegraph-poles lying 

 beside the track in readiness for the line to be carried 

 northwards. 



Leaving Manas with a light caravan, we travelled 

 along the east bank of the river. Although, at first, 

 a fast-flowing river, many channels running in over 

 shingly beds, it soon degenerated into a sluggish stream 

 winding its way between mud- banks and bordered by 

 jungle, swamp, or rice-fields. The farther north the 

 smaller and less frequent were the patches of culti- 

 vation. Now we passed through the fields of Chinese 

 colonists, and now through sand-dunes alternated by 

 marsh or forests of dwarf oak and poplar, which 

 formed the haunt of stags, pigs, and the small Central 

 Asian tiger. There were many varieties of scenery and 

 changes of weather ; thunder-storms broke over us, 

 and rain fell in such quantities that the passage of 

 the baggage-horses across the quagmire, into which the 



