CHAPTER LIE 
FROM AK-SU TO KASHGAR 
W E Stayed three days in Ak-su, in order to organize 
a temporary caravan, for the return journey to 
Kashgar, the centre and base of my exploring journeys 
in Central Asia. Thus I had an opportunity, though it 
must be confessed a brief one, of seeing something of the 
town of the White Water (Ak-su), so called because of 
the abundance of clear, fresh water which pours through 
it from the eternal snowfields and glaciers. The town 
occupies a favourable position on the left bank of the 
Ak-su-daria. In summer enormous quantities of water 
roll down the river. In winter there is but a fraction 
of it left, and the little there is freezes. A short distance 
below the town the river divides into two branches, the 
Yanghi-daria and the Kovneh-daria ; but they reunite 
before they join the main stream, the Yarkand-daria, or 
Tarim. Immediately on the east the town is overlooked 
by a terrace of conglomerate and loess strata, which rises 
to a perpendicular height of 1 50 or 1 60 feet, and has been 
carved out and shaped by the river floods. On all other 
sides the town is surrounded by numerous villages, fertile 
fields and meadows, splendid orchards, and brimming 
irrigation canals. Rice, wheat, maize, barley, cotton, 
opium, and a vast quantity of garden produce are grown 
with signal success. Ak-su, with its 15,000 inhabitants, 
is only half as big as Kashgar ; nevertheless in re.spect 
of its agricultural products it ranks considerably higher. 
The keeping of sheep, which graze, as I have said, along 
the banks of the two large rivers, is likewise a flourishing 
industry. 
649 
