OF EASTERN TURKESTAN. St 
Caccabis pallescens have been brought in. Among waders drdea 
cinerea, Herodias alba and Botaurus stellaris are all common. 
Anser cinereus was first seen flying over the Fort on the 
23rd of this month; and a specimen has been obtained. Azas 
boschas, exceedingly common. Querquedula crecca and Mergel- 
lus albellus (not numerous). 
The climatic elements of the month may be briefly summa- 
rized as follows: 
During the first half of the month the mean of the maxi- 
mum daily temperatures, was 36°°9; the mean of the daily 
minimum temperatures in the shade was 13°4; and the mean 
of the minimum on grass was 7°°7, the lowest temperature oc- 
curing on the lst of the month when the grass minimum ther- 
mometer registered 3°°5 or 2895 belowing freezing. 
During the latter half of the month the weather has been 
getting sensibly less cold: the mean maximum temperature 
being 46°°8, the thermometer registering as high as 60° in the 
shade on the 27th; the minimum temperature was 14°°6 on the 
17th, and 31°°-7 to-day, the mean for the period being 22°-9; 
the mean grass minimum has been 16°°8, rising to 26° on the 
28th; the lowest reading during the latter half of the month 
being 9° on the 21st. 
In the whole month we have had seven days of blue sky, 
eight days of parcial cloud and haze, thirteen days with the sky 
completely overcast. There has been neither rain or snow, 
and, as usual, the air has been comparatively still. 
31st March.—Yarkand (Yangi Shahr).—lLittle of special 
interest to record for this month. The medical practice is 
going on famously: usually a daily attendance of over 250 
Yarkandi patients. An old Hindu who has been living in this 
country for many years pretends to know the exact whereabout 
of a large treasure buried by the Chinese inside this Fort before 
they mere massacred by the Tunganis; but the present autho- 
rities do not seem inclined to institute a search. A Chinese 
convert to Islam has shown us a number of legerdemain tricks, 
some of them exactly like those cone by the “ Professors’ at 
home, and gave us the details of conjuring trick described in 
Yule’s Marco Polo. Onthe 11th (market day) some of our 
followers saw the punishment of mutilation inflicted on a couple 
of thieves before the assembled multitude in the Bazar. One 
of the criminals had his hand hacked off, and the other his foot. 
In our compound we have now two young stags, called Bugha 
a female Ibex (Kizil Kik) and a couple of young Saitkik (Ant. 
gutturosa). All these animals are tame enough, but the stags 
are most perniciously inquisitive about the nature of my me- 
teorological instruments. One of the beasts walked into my 
