Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 221 (Color Image)

0221	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. vII.] ARRIVAL AT KASHGAR. 183

week for nearly a thousand miles along their

base, their summits constantly appearing away

on my right hand. Now at last arose in front

of me the barrier which was to mark the point

where I should turn off left and south to India.

It was a worthy termination of that vast plain,

for the greater part desert, which stretches for

four thousand miles from the borders of Man-

churia to the buttress range of the Pamir, both

extremities of which I had now visited.

That evening we reached Artysh. E very-

thing here looked thriving and prosperous.

The fruit season was at its height, and all along

the road, at any little garden, the most delicious

grapes and melons could be obtained. Nor

was there now any difficulty with the people,

and they were always ready to allow us to rest

for a time in their gardens or put us up for the

night.

We now emerged on to the Kashgar plain,

passed through a populous, well-cultivated

district covered with trees and fruit gardens,

and at length entered the town of Kashgar,. the

distance to which, when I was starting from

Peking, had seemed so vast. Here I was at

last, and the culminating point of my journey

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