including those who stay only a month or two, is about two thousand a year. The annual output of gold is only twenty-six thousand dollars, or thirteen dollars per man. Thirteen dollars a year does not seem to be a sum calculated to encourage lavish expenditure. Nevertheless, the uncertainties of the miner's life and the possibilities of sudden wealth lead to the same extravagance in Central Asia as in western America. The bazaar is surprisingly large and busy considering the size of the population, and it is filled with idlers. As I walked about to take photographs, I counted a hundred and twenty men and boys following close behind me, and there were certainly fifty more sitting idle in places which we passed. I did not count the baby which lay bound in its cradle in front of a closed shop.
As we rode into Sorgak, I was surprised to see our honest friend, Yusup Beg of Keriya, coming out to meet us. It appeared that he was Beg of Sorgak, and had come a three days' journey from home simply to see that I was comfortable. When I wished to give him a present, he told Ibrahim that his sole desire was that I should write his name in my " deftar," or note-book, and give him a letter to put in his box. We were told that he was very unwilling to become Beg of Sorgak. What did he want of such a place ? He was old, and had held much higher positions. The Chinese amban of Keriya, however, though a most corrupt man himself, insisted upon having an honest man in charge of the gold-fields. The natives, as well as the Chinese, appreciated his honesty. When it became known that he had been appointed Beg of Sorgak, seventy families from Kapa, a gold-mining town a hundred and fifty miles to the east,
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