rock there consisted, as I have already said, of coarsely crystalline red granite. As a rule the schist only crops out at the base of the slopes, where it has been exposed by the erosive torrents. Immediately below Toghraklik-saj the black schistose rock comes to an end, and is succeeded by red granite, which thus embraces both sides of the glen. Beyond the point just named, the rock is abundantly seamed with veins of pegmatite. Below Kamisch-bulakning-ajaghi there is on the left side of the glen first a green schist dipping 71° to the N. 35° E., and after that a hard, dark, finely crystalline variety of rock resembling diorite or diabase dipping 81° to the N. 25° W. Then, after a short interval of red granite, the schist reappears again. At the point last named there is on both sides a dark green schist dipping 700 to the N. 20° E.; but the crest of the cliff on the right appears to consist throughout of red granite. A little higher up the red granite supervenes again for a short distance, but is succeeded by the black schist on both sides. The schists out of which the little springs gush is dark, finely crystalline, and hard, and dips 73° to the N. 3o° E. The hill on which the foot of Basch-kurghan stands consists of a rock that is fissured in every direction, with, to the south of it, a grey, coarsely crystalline rock greatly weathered, probably granite; while at the foot of the little hill there crops out an exceptionally hard variety of quartzite. The ridge which forms the southern continuation of this isolated eminence is however composed of soft material, although the mountains all round it are bare and naked rock.
The ruins of the fortified fort to which this place owes its name of Baschkurghan, and which has also given rise to the name of Kurghan-saj, stand at the corner of the little eminence I have just mentioned. The wall, which was built of slabs of slate and sun-dried bricks, is best seen from below; on the hill itself it is hardly noticed, because it forms a sort of platform flush with the rock. On the north the hill-sides are very steep; but by the ridge before mentioned, which connects the eminence with the hills on the south, it can be ascended with ease. In fact the little eminence forms the extreme northern elevation or culminating point of these hills. On each side is an eroded watercourse, the two effecting a junction with a third that arrives from the south-east. The middle glen of the three leads up to Baschjol, and it is this that we shall have to follow to reach Tschimen. The western glen, the brook of which provides good fresh water, in contradistinction to the other two, which are salt, stretches up towards the south-west, though afterwards it appears to turn to the west, round the bluff which contains the peak E. I was told, that it is a day's journey by this glen to Jan-bulak, the road thither running between the double range of the Tschokuluk-tagh on the south and the range with the peak E. on the north; this last is indeed the lower, northern chain of the two parallel chains of the Astin-tagh. About half-way to Jan-bulak, there is said to be a low flat ridge (bel) in the latitudinal valley, from which the water flows away in both directions after rain, eastwards to Basch-kurghan and Tatlik-bulak and westwards to Jan-bulak. Finally the eastern glen of the three I have mentioned climbs up S. 6o° E., but later on bends to the east. It was along it that Littledale travelled when on his way to Tung-chuan and Sa-tscheo. The hills and terraces which rise on both sides of the lowest part of the middle glen are low and of pretty uniform height, giving the region an open appearance. The water does not begin to trickle out of the detritus
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