it returns to the ledge for the third time, it flows along it and then continues in a NE direction, separating finally from the eminence that is followed by an arm called Kuna darya that is said to flow to Avat. The Patlama tagh mountains had retired in a southern direction from the bank on the level of the Lalasja Buzurba mazar. The ground above the ledge is a plain, covered with gravel, with a curious, porous soil which the horse's whole hoof breaks through. Between the river and the eminence there is a small, marshy piece of ground, covered with grass and poor bushes, on the surface of which considerable deposits of salt can be seen.
At the place where the river withdraws for the first time from the ledge of the bank; there is a hamlet called Toshkalik, consisting of two farms and a few small fields. At about its level the Aqsu darya or Qum ariq probably combines with the Taushqan darya. An hour further east the remains of a tower built of clay and rushes, like a Chinese paotai tower in shape, rise on the eminence slightly to the south of the river. My guide, an old man of 8o, ascribed it to the Kalmuks. One side of the tower is about 41/2 fathoms high. The rushes are placed in coils at intervals of about i m with clay between. The foot of the tower was probably about 6 paces square. From Toshkalik there is no cultivated soil on the southern bank up to the village of Saksak which is not actually on the Taushqan darya, but on the southern bank of the Kuna darya. Here, too, it is marshy near the banks. We crossed the latter river and continued in an E direction until we came to the bridge over the Taushqan darya at the spot, where it crosses the highway Kashgar-Maral BashiAqsu.
During the whole journey to-day the northern bank, seen from a distance, had the same character as yesterday — flat ground with houses and trees proceeding in a broad band along the river at a greater or smaller distance from it. East of Qara Döbe lie the villages
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