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tributary of the Kaidû or Karashahr river flows through the town, which, is said to be smaller than Yangi Hissar.
Its suburbs to the west on the Kûcha road are Conghrat, Langar, and Shinaghl to Durwûl; to the north-east on the Karashahr road, Ukat, Say bagh, and the new fort to Linapû-tash hill; to the east on the road to Kûrûgh Ugh, Tuwûnki, Charchû, and Shanko; and to the south on the road to Kara Kochen, Cosh Arik, Tobrachi, Taskan, Doghar, Chambola, Langar, Shah Calandar, and Uzan.
Its limits are Durwul on the west, and Bash Ayghûr, on the right bank of the Karashahr river which comes from the Tolaman hills where coal is worked, on the east; on the north the mountains, and on the south the Tarim river to Konchi below the junction of the united stream of the Kecha and Ktirla rivers. This is the limit eastward of the Turk tribes of Kashghar and Yarkand; and beyond the Kaide or Karashahr river cames the Tartar race, the Kalmak, and Khitay element in preponderance. The road from Ktirla to Karashahr goes along the right bank of the river between it and the mountains, and beyond Dangzil, where in a reedy marsh are the ruins of Kutyaghan, crosses it to the city by boat.
Karcishakr.—This division occupies a valley between the Aygher Bulak hills to the north, (a continuation eastward of the Alatagh or Tangri Ula range), and the Kûrûgh-tagh range • of sand hills to the south. These coalesce towards the east and close the valley in that direction at Gumish Akma, about 90 miles from the city; but towards the west the valley is open and gives passage to the Kaidû river, which on issuing from the Yuldûz valley spreads over the southern portion of this basin and forms the Baghrash Kol or lake. It is described as a long sheet of water five days' journey in length, and covered with floating islands of tall reeds amidst which the river flows, in the western end of the lake only. It is separated from the Lob District to the south by the Kurûghtagh, a wide range of sandy andgravelly ridges, amongst the hollows of which the wild horse and wild camel breed. There is a road between the lake and this range, seven days' journey from Ktirla to Ush Aktal; and there is another along its southern side, between it and Lob, a seven days' journey from Kara Kochen to Turfan. There is no habitation on either route, and the soil is sandy and marshy, and covered with great spreads of reed, and tamarisk, and poplar forest. The city of Karashahr stands near the left bank of the river to the north of the lake. Between the city and the river is the Musalman settlement of farms, and from it north-east goes the road to Turfan along a wide plain between the hills and the lake. It is about six days' journey in length, and was covered with a succession of Khitay homesteads ; but these were all destroyed by the Amir, and the whole way up to Ush Aktal, a distance of fifty miles, is now a mass of ruined farms and deserted homesteads. At Kara, Kizil, 20 miles beyond Ush Aktal and about the same distance from Gumish Akma where the road enters the hills, there are the ruins of an ancient city called Kara, Kizil in the midst of a sandy waste. They are supposed to be the remains of the ancient Chalish or Jalish.
Karashahr is a walled city of 1,000 houses, formerly peopled by Kalmak tribes who always lived in their Khargah tents (putting their cattle into the houses) and every summer emigrated to Yuldûz. It was originally founded by the Khitay with twelve Musalman families from Ktirla and twelve from Bughûr ; and it was afterwards settled by the Kalmak of the Turgut and Koshot camps, and by traders from Kamol. , Since the Amir's campaign here the city is almost entirely deserted, and all the suburbs, except the Musalman settlement on the river, are now in ruins.
The population. of the division was formerly reckoned at 8,000 houses or 56,000 souls, but now, excepting the Musalman settlement of 300 houses on the river and the new fort built by the Amir, there is hardly anybody in the country. The Yuldûz Kalmak who used to camp and pasture here, and who kept up a constant communication with Lob, now seldom quit their own valley. The Yuldûz Kalmak are Turgut and Koshot. ' Those of Ila are Olot and Manjhû.; and amongst them are many Solon and Shiba, the offspring of a Kalmak father and Khitay mother. They .are a mean and beggarly set, and wear no other clothing but a loin-clout; their language is a mongrel dialect mixed up with many Arabic words ; they have no other weapons besides the bow and arrow. There are also in Ila a great many *van ; these are enslaved criminals brought and settled here from all parts of China ;
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