DOWN THE YARKAND-DARIA 717 
was the most conspicuous. The gardens and fields were 
dependent for water upon the rainfall in the mountains 
around ; so that the crops were not seldom a failure. 
September 24th. We rode up the glen of Arpa-tallak, 
and in a violent hailstorm pitched our camp in a field 
near the village of Sughetlik (Willow Village), and on 
the following day crossed the pass of Arpa-tallak (12,590 
feet). The path wound zigzag up the declivity, which 
was pretty steep and diversified by gently rounded knolls 
overgrown with grass. Patches of snow still lay on the 
slopes facing north ; everywhere else the ground was 
sopping w'et from rain and snow. The horses constantly 
slipped and slid on the slippery clay, so that we had 
anything but a pleasant ride, especially as there was a 
deep precipice on one side of us. 
From the summit of the pass I perceived, to the west, 
the range which we crossed by means of the Kandahar 
pass. Eastwards was a panorama of mountain- crests, 
which died away into a yellowish haze in the far, far 
distance, where the desolate desert plains of East Turkestan 
began. On the east side of the range we were crossing 
there was no snow. Every village we passed after that was 
inhabited by Jagatai Turks; so that the Arpa-tallak pass 
forms a religious, as well as a climatic and ethnographic 
boundary. The track led east-north-east as far as the 
village of Unkurluk (the Ravines), where the people were 
engaged in thrashing their harvest. It was a very simple 
operation. The corn was spread out on the ground, and 
ten oxen, harnessed abreast, went round and round a pole 
in the middle, and so trod out the grain. Maize, wheat, 
and barley are the crops principally grown ; and the fields 
are only sown every other year. 
September 26th. We rested in the well-cultivated, 
well -inhabited district of Utch-beldir. The next day 
we emerged from the mountain labyrinth, and at the 
village of Kusherab once more crossed the Yarkand-daria, 
which was 85 yards wide, and had a maximum depth of 
feet. The current did not flow at the rate of more 
than i-| feet in the second, so that we had no difficulty in 
