KARGALIK TO KHOTAN 
743 
January 2nd. There was a tolerably fresh breeze all 
day from the east -north -east, and the dust trailed off 
in a thick cloud behind the caravan. Nevertheless the 
atmosphere remained very clear, and the Dua-tagh or 
Kwen-lun Mountains were plainly visible capped with 
snow. Immediately on the other side of Sang-uya we 
again entered upon a desolate waste — a level steppe, with 
a few scattered tamarisks, poplars, and reed-beds. 
Half-way to Pialma, where we intended to stop the 
night, we passed a little lengher (rest-house), where in 
CROWD IN MUJI 
return for a small gratuity an old man furnishes wayfarers 
with water, drawn up in a bucket from a well 150 foot 
deep. Pialma was said to have 200 houses and about 
one thousand inhabitants. 
On the following day we travelled through the same 
sort of dreary country as far as the solitary Ak-lengher 
(the White Rest-House or Serai), situated five or six miles 
(2^ potais) from the edge of the desert. It was only 
very seldom that we met other travellers ; and those we 
did meet were generally either small parties of merchants 
from Khotan, encumbered with no more baggage than 
