to the fact that the buildings had stood above the present surface of the ground which had not been raised in the course of time, but rather the reverse. Nothing was discovered but some half-decayed straw, some wooden pegs, half of a slightly hollowed-out board, a couple of pieces of wood connected by a peg (probably part of a handle), a piece of coarse cloth, a hit of rope, a piece of a tile, some fragments of clay vessels and half-decayed bones. The population says that a Kalmuk town stood here, and there is no other information to be had. I am inclined to conclude that there was a concentration of houses on the plain formed under the walls of the fortress or, on the other hand, that, in order to command the valley of the river, the fortress had two small projecting citadels at the fork of the river and a little lower down. As I have little hope of achieving better results and am pressed for time, I have decided to abandon further digging.
The population is friendly, talkative and merry. The men shave their chins and wear their beards like a fringe framing the jaw. The village, unlike that of the Sarts, is for the most part closely built with a lot of streets. The houses are by no means rich, but outwardly tidy and surrounded by plenty of fruit-trees. No beggars are to be seen and there seem to be none. About 300 houses are considered to be rich with about ioo mou of field 50-6o cows, io horses, 15-16 camels and i —2,000 sheep each. Altogether the village has about 1,000 houses, about io,000 mou of fields, 300-400 horses, 1,50o cows and oxen, 2,000 asses and 20,000 sheep. There are about 5 people to a household. They grow wheat, maize, millet and cotton that yield a 12-20, 150-320 and 320 fold crop and 4 tcheraks of cotton to r tcherak of seed. Cotton is sold as raw material at 3 r. 20 c. per tcherak and as cloth at 8 arshins for 40 c. — Three burans in spring and usually i in autumn lasting a day or 24 hours each in the direction from E or SW. — From Kelpin two roads go to Uch Turfan (2-3 days each, one crossing a mountain), and one to Chilan.
IIIF Color HighRes
