EXCURSION TO THE MASAR-TAGH 453 
overflow and unite into a lake-like expansion, while at 
the same time considerable stretches of the woods on 
the right bank of the river become half inundated. 
In the beginning of April a large number of Colons 
resort thither with their flocks, and there spend half the 
year in the woods, dw'elling in reed huts erected in situa- 
tions where they are safe from inundation. These summer 
camps, some of which still remained in situ, are called 
yeyliks. Thus the Colons may be said to be semi- 
nomads. 
When I could get no farther with the arba, I mounted 
a horse, and taking one man with me, rode over the 
Masar-tagh by a very difficult pass, and then proceeded 
along the western foot of the mountain, till I came to the 
reedy Shor-kul (Salt Lake), which, however, contained 
perfectly fresh water and swarmed with wild gee.se. The 
mountain was built of a species of coarse-grained, eruptive 
rock, encumbered all along its base with fallen fragments 
of stone, which were poli.shed and carved by the wind into 
grotesque, saucer-like hollows, overtopped by rounded 
masses poised on narrow stalks or pedestals. The Shor- 
kul, which lay parallel to the left bank of the Yarkand- 
daria, was a typical fluvial lagoon. It owed its origin to 
the gradual deposit of sediment in the bed of the river, 
lifting the current above its banks until it overflowed on 
to the lower-lying country on each side. 
We returned to camp by way of the Ullug-masar. The 
Masar-tagh we found consists of crystalline schist, por- 
phyry, and a species of rock resembling syenite. It stands 
like a ruin in the angle between the Kashgar-daria and 
the Yarkand-daria, and is itself looked upon as a masar or 
saint’s tomb. 
February 27th. We now returned, in a north-north- 
east direction, to the great Ak-su road, which we struck 
at Char-bagh (the Four Gardens). Once more we crossed 
the Kashgar-daria, or rather the numerous branches into 
which it was there divided, each spanned by a small 
wooden bridg-e. Soon after that the hill of Akhur-masar- 
tagh loomed out through the dust-laden atmosphere, one 
