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0045 Southern Tibet : vol.9
Southern Tibet : vol.9 / Page 45 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000263
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UPAL.

27

of red, muddy water, completely destroying the bridge and fifteen houses. The sil water is said to continue to the Kisil-su and to join this river near the bridge on the road between I, ashgar and Yangi- shahr. The winter is cold, but there is not much snow.

The third day's march July i 3th, took us 4o km. S. W. to the entrance of the mountains. In this distance we rose nearly to double our former altitude or from 1,419 m. to 2,672 m., i. e. 1,253 m. and at a rate of 1:32.

For a short distance the road follows the willow avenue of Ujal with ariks, fields and grey mud walls on the sides, after which one comes out on a gradually rising steppe. To our right and westwards are pointed out the parts of the Kashgar Ra,'zge, where the two passes Ayag-art and Kasig-art are situated, said to be easier than Ulug-art which we are going to cross. In our neighbourhood, to the right or N. W. of our road, is a comparatively low mountain ridge starting from the vicinity of Kasig-art, and bounding Upal on the north. In this ridge there is said to be a Chinese watch-place called Ujalat-karaul. To the left or south of the route the steppe gradually rises in the direction of Tash-melik. Between Ural

and Tash-melik there is another karaul called Yulug-bash-karaul.

Steppe plants are growing here and there, though sparse. Immediately to our left there is a canon-shaped furrow in the ground, 5 m. deep and 7o m. broad. In its bottom flows a little brook fed by springs and irrigating some small fields lower down. The brook of Upal, which is to our right, is also fed by springs and grows, as we had seen, enormously after rain, but only for a few hours.

The furrow to our left gradually becomes broader, 2 00 m., and 40o m., and deeper; i o or i 2 m. Our road goes down to its bottom, where abundant grass is growing and flocks of sheep grazing. At its sides rise nearly perpendicular walls of loess, pebbles and shingle. After a while we again leave the furrow and continue on the partly barren, and gradually rising ground, on which a few steppe plants grow.

By and by the rise becomes steeper .and the ground more gravelly. In the front, the lower regions of the mountains become visible, whilst the higher snow-covered parts remain hidden in clouds. Several small furrows, formed by the last rain, are crossed. Suddenly we enter the mouth of the valley leading to Ulug-art. It is bounded by comparatively mighty ramifications from the mountains, and the appearance is therefore quite another than at Igis-yar, where one gradually passes between small hills and ridges before one is in the valley itself. In the very mouth of the Ulug--art valley the ground consists of a flat gravelly fan on which the brook forms a real delta of small branches.

The road runs on the top of a terrace 3o m. high and consisting of pebbles and shingle, and originally worked out by the brook at an epoch with more copious precipitation. On the terrace there is a place called Kirk-sheif with two gumbes