64 A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ORNITHOLOGY 
reduced. Then our road lay over a well-cultivated plain with 
hamlets and farmsteads dotted about, and, here and there, 
bits of marshy ground. About seven miles from Yarkand we 
were met by a gorgeously dressed Yuzbashi, Mohammad 
Yakub, who gave us a dastarkhwan and afterwards rode on with 
us to our abode here. 
The first glimpse I got of Yarkand was in the shape of 
an embrasured mud wall peeping through the trees which 
seemed to screen it on the southern side; not at all the bare 
sort of ground in which I expected to find the city. We 
crossed an extensive bit of swampy ground in which the 
Lapwing ( Vanellus cristatus) was very plentiful, and then got 
into a suburb where the streets were very dirty ; pools of 
black stagnant water and all sorts of rubbish lying about. 
Riding on we entered one of the gates of the city of Yarkand 
and after passing through a number of. streets crowded with 
people, we emerged at another gate, called Altun Darwaza, 
and saw the Yangi Shahr (Fort or Cantonment of Yarkand) 
divided from the city by a dusty bit of ground about 450 
yards across. 
The gate of the Fort was guarded by about twenty or 
thirty Yarkandi soldiers, not dressed with any attempt at 
uniformity ; and the streets of the Yangi Shahr were a _ repeti- 
tion on a small scale of those we had just seen in the city. 
We soon turned into the Residency here, which has a large 
compound, with a tank in the middle, and a couple of court- 
yards with suites of rooms round them; and found our 
quarters very comfortable. Then, after a dastarkhwan, we 
proceeded to dress in uniform for a visit to thes Dadkhwah of 
Yarkand, but I must leave the description of the rest of the 
events of the day until to-morrow. 
11th October— Yarkand.*—For the last five days we have 
been occupied making visits and receiving them; giving the 
presents sent by our Government and receiving many in 
return; regaling ourselves with innumerable dastarkhwans ; 
and altogether we have been treated most hospitably. It has 
been arranged that we shall start for Kashghar to see the 
Amir; but as His Highness intends soon to set out on a tour to 
some distant part of his dominions, we are to leave our heavy 
luggage and a number of our followers at Yarkand, to which 
we expect to return very soon. 
The weather has been uniformly fine, but every day there 
has been a haze of fine dust, which has made it impossible 
to see any hills or ranges, or indeed, objects at any con- 
* The position of Yarkand (Yangi Shuhr) has been fixed by Captain Trotter at N 
Lat. 38° 25’ 1”, and Longitude 77’ 15’ 55” E, of Greenwich. 
