OF EASTERN TURKESTAN. 63 
to this town, About Karghalik many farmsteads and orchards 
are scattered about, and the neighbourhood seems to be inter- 
sected with water-courses for irrigation. The roads are lined 
with mulberry and willow trees, ‘and there is cultivation every- 
where ; I noticed fields of Indian corn, rice and cotton (the 
plants of the latter seem to be stunted, not more than a foot and 
half high usually). As we rode out of Karghalik we met great 
numbers of people coming in for the weekly fair; they were 
all well dressed and nearly every one was mounted, on ponies 
or donkeys. The road near Kar ghalik was well eae! and 
I noticed that water-channeis were carried under the roads by 
means of the sort of syphon arrangement, which I have seen 
before both in Egypt and India. Ev ery now and then we met 
‘Fakirs,’ or ‘ Dewanahs’ who on receiving a few coppers would 
repeat the Fatiha with outstretched hands, ending with Allahu 
Akbar and the usual beard-stroking. A little further on the 
cultivation became more thin, with patches of marshy ground 
overgrown with reeds in places, until we passed through Yak- 
shamba Bazar (Sunday market place) consisting of a long row 
of houses on each side of the road. About five miles beyond 
Yakshamba Bazar we forded the Tiznaf river, a stream 
running north-eastward over a pebbly bed between low sandy 
banks. Seven or eight miles further on we reached Posgam, 
a smaller town than Karghalik and situated in a cultivated 
plain with farmsteads and orchards dotted about. 
The elevation of our camp here is 4,249 feet, and there are a 
good patches of marshy and waste ground about. Posgam seems 
to be the head-quarters of goitre in this country, nearly every 
soul in the place seeming to have this disease to a greater 
or less extent; this Ansa I have been quite besieged by 
crowds of patients. On the road the Hoopoe was common, 
the Crested Lark (Galerita magna) was very numerous, and 
IT saw hundreds of Swallows (Hirundo rustica) sailing about 
and clinging to the mud banks; Sylvia curruca too was 
common in waste ground. We had cloudy weather this after- 
noon, with strong gusts of wind bringing clouds of dust; at 
10 P. mM. there was a slight fall of rain. “The cultivated country 
we have now got into forms a striking contrast to the desert 
we traversed after leaving Sanju. 
6th,—Posgam to Manca —Lovely clear morning after the 
rain last night which must have been very slight ; fine ridges 
and peaks ” of mountains, snow capped, were visible away to 
our left as we rode along. After going through fine lanes, 
with rich cultivation on each side, we crossed the Yarkand 
river—an operation which consisted in fording about half a 
dozen streams to which the river is at-the present season 
