232 
THROUGH ASIA 
temperature steadily rising as we descended. We rested 
for a while at Kouruk-karaol (the Bridge-Watch), vvhere 
on the 29th April the minimum was as high as 39°2 (4° C.). 
4'Jie district which we had now reached was in ill-repute, 
because of the Chinese and Kashgarian robber -bands 
which infested it. I therefore judged it prudent to post 
sentries during the night, with orders to keep an eye 
especially on the baggage and the horses. My men 
advised me to have my weapons handy and ready for use. 
But the night passed as quietly as other nights had done : 
the robbers did not molest us. 
The following day we again had a difficult crossing. 
One of the packhorses, ridden by Khoja the Sart, 
stumbled and fell, and narrowly escaped drowning. In 
a moment every man of my company was in the water, 
heedless of clothes. But it cost them a vast amount of 
labour to rescue the animal and the stores it carried. 
Khoja went head over heels into the water, and got an 
involuntary bath. As on the previous day, we were 
obliged to cross the stream time after time, sometimes by 
means of fords, at others over what were in many cases 
dangerous bridges. At length, however, the valley began 
to widen out, and as it did so, we began to come across 
patches of scrub. At noon the thermometer showed 66°2 
Fahr. (19° C.). We were getting to lower elevations and 
a warmer climate. Everything was shrouded m a thick 
yellow mist ; moreover my eyes pained me a good deal, so 
that I saw but little of the picturesque country we were 
passing through. 
The 30th April was the last day we spent amongst 
the mountains. Before the morning was over they began 
to decrease rapidly in elevation, till they were little better 
than insignificant hills, and finally they fell away and 
became lost in the distant haze which hung over the 
trumpet-shaped entrance to the valley. I he surface grew 
leveller, and yielded a good supply of grass, which caused 
the horses to lose all sense of discipline. The poor 
animals, whose bellies had been sadly pinched during the 
journey across the snowy mountains and barren wastes 
