656 
THROUGH ASIA 
flood, even the ferry would be useless, and for some time 
all communication between the opposite banks would be 
interrupted. Every year an average of half-a-dozen men 
lose their lives through attempting to ride across the river 
when the current is too powerful. 
On the other side of the river we met a caravan of 
some two hundred horses and oxen ; each animal was 
dragging after it on the ground two long beams of poplar 
wood (terek). The aksakal told me, that a large dam 
or jetty was being built fifteen miles above the town, along 
the left bank of the Ak-su-daria, and that no less than 
three thousand men were engaged upon the work. The 
object of the dam, which is reconstructed every year, was 
to prevent the flood from doing injury to the terrace of 
conglomerate, and so eventually sweeping away both the 
Old and the New Town, and to force it over to the opposite 
or right bank. Thus the Ak-su-daria, which at that point 
flows south, also tends towards a more easterly course. 
Four and a half hours later we rode across the Taushkan- 
daria (Hare River), the sister stream of the Ak-su-daria. 
It was much more difificult to cross, on account of the 
water flowing in a confined channel. We accordingly 
hired two suchis (water men), who, being naked, carefully 
led the horses across the stony river-bed. 
June 9th. We reached the little town of Utch-turfan, 
which owes such importance as it possesses solely to 
its position as a sort of half-way house between Ak-su 
and the frontier of Asiatic Russia, and on the road by 
which the w’ool, cotton, felts, carpets, hides, etc. of East 
Turkestan are exported. There w'ere some eighty 
prosperous Andijan {t.e. West Turkestan) traders estab- 
lished there, likewise under the authority of my friend 
Mohammed Emin. The town stands in the midst of 
fertile, well-cultivated field.s, irrigated from the Taushkan- 
daria. In the far distance we saw the snow-white bastions 
of the great Fian-shan Mountains, and nearer at hand 
some ranges of low hills. The Chinese amban (governor) 
of Utch-turfan, Tso Daloi, received me with great polite- 
ness and invited me. to dine with him. He was formerly 
