last offshoots of the Tien-shan, rise island-like from a wide riverine plain still marshy in places. A couple of them, situated just where the present road passes the village of Tumshuk, bear some ruins of Buddhist shrines dating back to Tang times. They were duly visited, but as they had already been cleared by M. Pelliot and Professor Von LeCoq they could not detain me. In the autumn of 1913 I had already explored the remains of a small Buddhist site in a similar position much farther to the north. Together with other archaeological indications it suggested that the main course of the Kashgar river, which the modern caravan route from Maral-bashi to Kashgar hugs first on its left and then on its right bank, had probably down to mediaeval times led much nearer to the foot of the steep outer hill chain overlooking the flat plain to the east of Kashgar.
Then near Faizabad the eastern edge of the great and fertile oasis of Kashgar was entered, and by the last day of May I passed once more at Chini-bagh under the ever hospitable shelter of the British Consulate General, which ever since the year I goo had served as the cherished and most helpful base for all my Central-Asian explorations.
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