part 2 .] Stoliczka : Route front Shakidula to Yarkand and Kashgar. 
51 
Leaving Yarkand we passed for the first few miles through cultivated land, which, how 
ever, soon gave way to the usual aspect of the desert, or something very little better. A few 
miles south-west of ICokrahad a low ridge runs from south-east to north-west. If we are 
allowed to judge from the numerous boulders of red sandstone and G-rypheea marl, some of 
considerable size and scarcely river-worn, we might consider the ridge as being composed of 
cretaceous rocks. But one hardly feels consoled with the idea, that in wading through the 
sand he should only cross a once cretaceous basin, and that the whole of this country should 
have remained free from encroachment of any of the kainozoio seas. It is very dangerous 
to jump to conclusions regarding the nature of a ground untouched by the geological ham¬ 
mer. The answer to any doubt must for the present remain a desideratum. On the fourth 
day of our march, approaching Yangihissar, we also crossed a few very low ridges, but 
these consisted entirely of gravel and marly clay beds, most of thorn dipping with a very 
high angle to south by east, the strike being nearly due east and west. South of Yangihissar 
the ridge bent towards south-west, and there was also a distant low ridge traceable in a north¬ 
easterly direction, the whole having the appearance of representing the shore of some large 
inland watersheet. From Yangihissar to Kashgar we traversed only low land, as usually 
more or less thickly covered with a saline efflorescence, but still to a considerable extent 
cultivated. Here in Kashgar the distant heights of the Kuenlun, of the Pamir and Tbin- 
shan ranges are ready to unfold their treasures, whether we go in a southerly, or westerly, 
or northerly direction; geological ground is even nearer, to be found in some of the low ridges 
from twelve to thirty miles distant, while the Moral-bnshi forests, lying eastward, invite tlie 
zoologist and sportsman. I trust we shall soon be able to see and relate some novelties from 
our neighbourhood. 
Kashgar, 20th December 1873. 
Note regarding the occurrence of jade in the Karakash vat ley. on the 
southern borders of Turkistan, by Dr. Ferd. Stoeiczka, Naturalist attached 
to the Yarkand Embassy. 
The portion of the Kuenlun range, which extends from Shabidula eastward towards 
Kotan, appears to consist entirely of gneiss, syenitic gneiss, and metamorphic rocks, these 
being quartzose, micaceous, or bornblendic schists. On the southern declivity of this range, 
which runs along the right bank of the Karakash river, are situated the old jade mines, or 
rather quarries, formerly worked by the Chinese, They are about seven miles distant from 
the Kirghiz encampment Belakchi, which itself is about twelve miles south-east of 
Shahiduia. I had the pleasure of visiting the mines in company with Dr. Beliew and Captain 
Biddulph, with a Yarkandee official as our guide. 
We found the principal jade locality to be about one and a half miles distant from the 
river, and at a height of about five hundred feet above the level of the same. Just in this 
portion of the range a few short spurs abut from the higher hills, all of which are, how¬ 
ever, as usually, thickly covered with debris and sand, the result of disintegration of the 
original rock. The whole has the appearance as if an extensive slip of the mountain-side 
had occurred. Viewing the mines from a little distance the place seemed to resemble a 
number of pigeon-holes worked in the side of the mountain, except that they were rather 
irregularly distributed. On closer inspection we saw a number of pits and boles dug out 
in the slopes, extending over a height of nearly a couple of hundred feet, and over a length 
of about a quarter of a mile. Each of these excavations has a heap of fragments of jade 
and rock at its entrance. Most of them are only from ten to twenty feet high and broad, 
and their depth rarely exceeds twenty or thirty feet; only a few show some approach to low 
