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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
GEOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX.
SECTION G.
ROUTES TRAVERSED BY MEMBERS AND EMPLOYÉS OF THE MISSION.
ROUTE I.
YARKAND TO LEH viâ SÂNJI7 AND KARAKORAM PASS (DR. BELLEW, OCTOBER
AND NOVEMBER 1873).
1. Yârkand to Posgâm (height* 4,210 feet), 17 miles.—Across a cultivated plain covered thickly with farmsteads and traversed by numerous irrigation streams. Trees along the water-courses, and orchards round the farmsteads. Cultivation interrupted by meadows and marshes. At three miles from Posgâm cross the Zarafshân river, which flows in two channels separated by patches of tamarisk jangal. Ford across a firm pebbly bed between low sandy banks four to five hundred yards apart. Posgâm is a market town of about 600 houses. Called also Chirshamba Bâzâr.
?. Kârghalik (height 4,370 feet), 24 miles.—Cultivated plain, farmsteads and fields, with marshes and jangal patches between. At eight miles cross Tiznâf river. Ford firm and pebbly between low sandy banks 80 to 100 yards apart. At five miles on pass through Yakshamba Bazar, 300 houses. Then across thin cultivation between patches of saline encrustation, marsh, and waste to Kârghalik, 1,000 houses. A market town with widespread farmsteads. Many trees and many water-courses.
Borg, (height 5,340 feet), 25 miles.—Soon pass beyond cultivation across a stony desert waste six miles to Besharik, or " five streams," a populous settlement of farms on the water-courses in a wide hollow running from west to east. Then cross an arid and wide waste of coarse gravel to another hollow, deeper and narrower. In this is the settlement of Borg., 30 to 40 homesteads on the course of the stream from which the cultivation is irrigated. Trees in plenty.
Oi-toghrâk (height 5,760 feet), 12 miles.—Across an arid desert of undulating surface, coarse gravel, and wind blown ridges of sand, very scanty herbal vegetation, to a deep and winding drainage gully in which, on course of its stream, is the Oi-toghrâk settlement of 15 to 20 farmsteads. Trees few.
Khushtagh, 19 miles.—Across an arid, undulating desert waste of sandy gravel for 18 miles; then cross a wide boulder strewn hollow with thin tamarisk jangal, and pass through a belt of tall reeds to Khushtagh settlement in a wide hollow. Farmsteads for some miles along the course of the Kiliân stream which flows eastward to Gt4mâ.
Sânjû (height 6,070 feet), 25 miles.—Cross arid strip of desert as before, eight miles to a dry ravine in which are four or five farmsteads watered from springs; this is Langar, and here is a roadside rest-house and tank of water under the shade of tall poplars. From this up a steep bank and across a ridgy desert as before for 16 miles to the Sânjû valley down a steep sandy slope. The road to Giimâ branches off north-east on this desert. Sânjû is a populous settlement along the course of a river which flows towards Khotan, and is forded on a rough boulder bed. Farmsteads, orchards, and fields here extend in unbroken succession for eight or ten miles along the river.
Kiwaz, 13 miles.—Pass through Sânjû settlement five or six miles to high banks of gravel and red sand; then up a narrowing valley along the Sirikia river, which runs in three or four streams and is crossed twice en route on a boulder bottom, to Kiwaz ; six or eight scattered huts on a limited flat amongst hills.
* The heights throughout these routes are supplied by Captain Trotter.
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