5o8 
THROUGH ASIA 
and six and a half feet deep. Another river-bed, quite 
dry, was twenty-two yards wide. In the north there were 
a few dark flocculent cloud.s, like smoke drifting up from 
the ground. Yollchi’s explanation was as follows : — The 
mountains we saw were the south-eastern continuation 
of Masar-tagh, stretching down to the right or southern 
bank of the Yarkand-daria. The two dried up river- 
beds had been affluents of the Yarkand-daria, which 
used to receive a portion of their waters during the 
height of the summer. The clouds we saw in the north 
were columns of steam or evaporation from the Yarkand- 
daria, reflected against the pure blue sky. In all these 
explanations he was unquestionably right ; at a later 
period I was able to test two or three of his statements, 
and found things to be exactly as he had said. 
For a whole hour we travelled between two parallel 
ridges of sand, which stretched north by fifteen degrees 
east. The one on our right was more than thirty feet 
high, and both had rounded outlines. The level steppe 
between them was overgrown with exuberant thistles 
and poplars._^ We crossed the ridge on our right, and 
then passed along a second valley running parallel to the 
first. At the end of seventeen and a half miles we 
pitched camp No. VII. under the shade of a couple of 
leafy poplars. We had no need to dig for water; there 
were several indications that a lake or runnine stream 
could not be far off. North of us was a thick forest 
of poplars. Mosquitoes, flies, and moths were abundant. 
At night the last-mentioned fluttered round my candle in 
hundreds. 
