miles beyond, we passed some coal mines on the left. Here the gorge went by the name of Talipin gol. Not quite two miles from this spot, at the mouth of a side-gorge on the left, stood a shed, where arbahs were filled with coal brought by donkeys from a mine in the very narrow side-gorge already mentioned. The one we followed had grown considerably wider and the mountains on either side had become higher and steeper. After travelling for a mile, winding backwards and forwards mainly in a NW direction, we gained the large gorge of the Lansor or Neiman gol. Here there was an inn frequented by the men who transported the coal. The river flowed here in a W—E direction in a main arm with many branches in a stony bed, 15o-25o fathoms wide. Picturesque, steep mountains towered on both sides. Those on the left bank are red terracotta in colour. For a distance of about 31/2 miles the river described a curve, open to the north, until it adopted a NE course which it followed for 2 1/2 miles. The mountains on either side were steep, those on the left perpendicular to an appreciable height. About 2/3 of a mile further on we reached the little town of Li Yuan. During this last stretch the course of the river was ENE and it was enclosed by no more than two appreciable rises in the gravelly ground. The mountains had receded to a distance, but on the other side of the town, rather more to the NE, the bed of the river again seemed to be shut in by mountains of respectable size that had drawn closer together.
Li Yuan is a small place on the left bank of the river, almost in the bed itself. It consists of a small impanj, the interior of which bore clear traces of the damage done by the Dungans who were said to have sacked it on three occasions. The yamen itself, inhabited by the head of the garrison, a tusy, is nothing but a ruin. Outside the wall of the impanj there was an earthwork that enclosed the few houses in the place. The tusy called on me immediately after my arrival. He had prepared rooms for me in his ruined yamen, but Hashim, who had been sent on in advance, had preferred a Government inn in the outer
IIIF Color HighRes
