Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 248 (Grayscale High Resolution Image)

0248	Among the Celestials : vol.1

206 AMONG THE CELESTIALS. [CHAP. VIII

On the following day we reached the Yar-

kand River at Chiraghsaldi camping-ground-

the farthest point reached by Hayward on his

march down the river nearly twenty years

before. The river was at this time of the

year fordable, and ran over a level pebbly bed,

the width of the valley at the bottom being

three or four hundred yards. All along the

bottom were patches of jungle, and here and

there stretches of grass ; but the mountain-sides

were quite bare.

Proceeding down the Yarkand River, now

through absolutely unknown country, we reached

the next day the ruins of half a dozen huts and

a smelting furnace, on a plain called Karash-

tarim. There were also signs of furrows, as of

land formerly cultivated, and it is well known

that up to a comparatively recent period, cer-

tainly within eighty years ago, this valley of

the Yarkand River was inhabited, and spots

like this, which included about a hundred and

fifty acres of arable land, were cultivated. The

district is known as Raskam, which, I was told,

is a corruption of Rast-kin (a true mine), a

name which was probably given it on account

of the existence of mineral deposits there.

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