Matan is among the villages that bear the common name of Qaratal. They are as follows from W to E: Kuna üstang with 20 houses, Wakhpe with 55, Sarkar arghe with 30, Kokul with 50, Tugemen bashi with 4, Doskul with 20, Kazak with 20, Tobruche with i8, Ganreg with 16, Böchche with 6o, Konak with 25, Sart with 17, Galdur with 50, Matan with J5, Zagar with 3, Taz with 6o, Kadam Aimak with 15 and Sorqum with 20. — Wheat yields up to 8 fold, maize 30, flax 4 and cotton 3. 7 burans in the spring, 3 in the autumn.
There is not much to be said about this day's journey. A strong north wind that had been blowing since yesterday had raised so much dust that the view was extremely restricted. As soon as the village is left behind, you enter ground covered with thorny bushes, thickets and grass which continues uninterruptedly to the Yarkand darya. In some places the bushes change to thin trees. The soil is very saliferous the whole way. Nothing relieves the monotony of this melancholy landscape. The wind howls and constantly carries fresh clouds of dust from the north and north-east.
In about five hours we reached the remains of 3 —4 Sart houses, abandoned when the river that once flowed here made a new bed 2 or 3 miles further south. A little later some grazing horses and sheep indicated the proximity of human dwellings. In 5 1/2 hours from Matan our road came out on the Yarkand darya which rolls its mass of water in an arm about I0o fathoms broad in a direction 920—X260°. A rickety ferry maintains the connection between the two banks at a price of 5 cop. per camel or horse. The oars are merely a couple of spars and everything is extremely primitive. I crossed over to the other bank from which six horses from Khotan were to be brought across. Three ferrymen laboured in the sweat of their brow and it was with great difficulty that we got across after sailing for half-an-hour and running aground once or twice. The charming company of Khotanliks
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