shows that the main range of the Kuenlun Mountains must recede considerably from here. I was informed by Turdi Kol that, after ascending the Bazar Darra River, and crossing a pass (the Kokalang), you do not enter the basin of the Tisnaf River, as you would in the case of the Yangi and Chiraghsaldi passes further east, but you descend into the valley of a river called the Kulanargu, which joins the Yarkand River in its lower course somewhere near Pil ; and you have to cross another pass, the Takhta-kuran, before you enter the valley of the Tisnaf River ; so that it is evident that a little to the west of the Chiraghsaldi Pass the Kuenlun Range must split up, the two branches being separated by the Kulanargu River. The lower part of this river is called Chukshu, and is inhabited by Turkis, who are under Chinese jurisdiction, though they, like the Kirghiz, were refused protection from Kanjuti raids, and were told by the Chinese authorities that they lived outside the frontier passes, and must therefore expect no assistance.
The great height of these mountains was deeply impressed upon me on this day's march. Tired of marching monotonously along the bottom of the valley, cooped in by the mountains all round, I determined to climb a projecting hill, from which it seemed a view might be obtained of the higher portions of the ranges which were shutting us in. For some hours I toiled up a shingle slope, at each step sliding back, in the moving stone shoot, almost as much as I ascended, and when at last I reached the summit of the hill, I found it but the extremity of a spur which stretched back higher and higher to the range behind. My caravan below looked like specks in the valley bottom, but the snowy peaks above were still as distant as ever. I saw little more of the great main ranges than could be seen from the valley bottom, and, beginning to realize something of what these mountain heights truly are, I descended the opposite side of the hill and rejoined my party just as they were brought to a standstill in the gorge I have mentioned above. The river
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