heaviest fall of snow usually takes place in March. Between the Karakoram and Kuen Lun ranges the highest line of vegetation is fixed at 17,000 feet, by the 'Boorsee,' a plant resembling lavender, above which no vegetable life is to be met with.

The Kuen Lun mountains, so called either from their blue colour, or from the quantity of wild leeks with which they are overgrown, until the air is heavy with the offensive smell, lie between 77° and 81° E., and in the 37th parallel of north latitude. The crest averages quite 20,000 feet, broken by peaks rising from two to three thousand feet still higher. Unlike the broad mass of the Karakoram mountains, the Kuen Lun range is a tall narrow wall, of which comparatively little is yet known.

About six miles to the north-east of Khotan commences the Takla Makân, or Desert of Gobi. The edge of this desert,' Mr Johnson observes, has the appearance of a low range of broken hills, and consists of hillocks of moving sand, varying in height from 200 to 400 feet.' Impelled by the north-easterly gales the sand surges onward in gigantic billows, and is fabled to have overwhelmed 360 towns and villages in twenty-four hours. That places of considerable importance have at times. been buried seems to be incontestable, and Mr Johnson mentions a quantity of Chinese tea bricks being found in a town that had been again uncovered by the wind after the lapse of several years. Mr Shaw also quotes a legend to the effect that this desert was once peopled with infidels, to whom Julla-ooddeen preached the religion of Mohammed. The idolaters consented to embrace Islam if he would turn their dwellings into gold. In answer to the saint's prayers that miracle was performed, whereupon they laughed him to scorn, and would have nothing to do with him or his new creed. In sorrow and anger he turned his back upon them, and huge waves of sand came

and covered the land and all that was upon it. At present the chief denizens of the waste are reported to be herds of wild camels, and of antelopes with lyre-shaped horns. The most remarkable feature, however, of the Gobi is an extensive lake, called Lob Nor, which lies in a depression surrounded by mountains of the loftiest character, whose drainage it receives without any appreciable effect upon its depth or area, though it has no apparent outlet. Near the rivers extensive mar-hes are of frequent occurrence, surrounded by barren tracts. South of the Tian Shan, and east of the Pameer, wide sandy steppes are interposed between the mountains and the fertile districts. Towns and villages naturally follow the course of the rivers. On the plains the roads are sufficiently good for two-wheeled conveyances, but the ass and the dromedary are in greater request than carts. In the mountains recourse is had to that hardy and useful animal, the Yak.

According to Captain Wood, the Yak usually stands about forty-two inches in height. It is covered with hair. Its belly is not above six inches from the ground, which is swept by its bushy tail, and long hair streams as it were down its dewlap and fore legs. The horns are those of the bovine race, to which it belongs. A light saddle with horn stirrups is placed upon the back, and a string, passed through the cartilage of the nose, serves for a bridle. In Badakhshan the Yak is commonly known as the Kash-gow. These animals are as sagacious as the elephant, perfectly sure-footed, and fond of extreme cold. In summer time they ascend to the line of perpetual snow, but in winter come down to their calves which are left below. They go in great herds, which will keep at bay a whole pack of wolves. Their mode of grazing is peculiar. They eat upwards from a lower level to a higher, furrowing through the snow with their nose to get at the short grass beneath.

Their hair is clipt in spring, and woven into various articles.

The tail is the familiar choury, or fly-flapper, of Hindostan, though in the hills it is made into ropes. The milk is remarkably rich. The Yak does not thrive in warm climates, and even at Kabul, 6000 feet above the sea, it pines away. The specimens that have occasionally been introduced into Europe belong to a Chinese variety, whose horns are even with the plane of the visage, while those of the Yak of the Pameer and the Karakoram mountains are projecting.

The population of Kashgaria is conjectured at between three and four millions, and comprises Oozbegs, Kipchaks, Moghuls, Mohammedans, Chinese, Tunganis, Kalmuks, and Tajeeks, while the Kirghiz roam over the mountains with flocks of sheep and goats, and herds of yaks and camels. The original inhabitants of Eastern Toorkestan were of the Aryan race, and are largely represented among the Yarkund villagers even at the present day, their descendants being described as tall gaunt men, resembling the typical Yankee in figure, and with long faces, but with good noses and full beards.

About the middle of the second century B.C., says Mr Shaw, the Youchee Tatars were expelled by other Tatar tribes from their homes in the north-east and driven into the districts of Yarkund and Kashgar, where they mastered or dispossessed the Aryans. A small remnant of that ancient stock was cooped up for ages in the valleys of the Sarikol district, in the angle formed by the intersection of the Pameer and the Muztagh, or Karakoram, mountains. Quite recently this interesting colony, numbering from 1000 to 1500 souls, having exhibited symptoms of insubordination, was transplanted by the Atalik Ghazee into the more cultivated regions. Their language was nearly pure Persian, with a few Toorkee words intermingled, but the Yarkund Aryans have entirely lost the language of their forefathers and speak only Toorkee.

The Oozbegs are the most civilized of all the various tribes

The Inguz ve Lenant Ervard in is very indung piger pilien de Ligi Geogmphim Sudety's Darul E. filare the Bedoan Amade of Tommi Adı al Like there shildren of the fewer possess no frei habitative, but More 2003 Longs the tens of the months with their mia and beri Ther 2x e male of felt in shape ciremlar, appret a crow panes of wood mastiring a framework szone will Puth matting is fred in the interior of the tent. kelt carpets over the four, in the centre of which is the firepak. A dimlar opening in the roof of the tent, which can le covered over and dowed at w, gives escape to the smoke. The tenta are very comfortable and impervious to rain, and will last a dozen years. Each famly possesses one, and when a young couple marry a separate tent is provided for them, and they henceforward constitute a separate family in the encamp

ment,'

An average-sized tent is about sixteen feet in diameter, and when moving to a new encamping ground, all at once assist in striking the tent, which is then packed on three yaks, and the

Kirghiz move off to fresh fields and pastures new. They are an excessively hardy race, as men, women, and children alike brave the rigours of winter and the heat of summer amongst their native mountains. Their food is the produce of their flocks and herds, which are driven to pastures, and tended by the men and boys during the day-time; and on the approach of evening return to their folds in the encamping ground. Here the women milk the yaks and goats, make butter and curd cakes, and are employed during the day in carrying water, or weaving the warm material which the wool of their flocks affords them, into articles of wearing apparel. In appearance they are seldom attractive, and are short and robust. The men are low in stature, and generally of spare wiry frame, with high cheek-bones, a low and slanting forehead, and a broad flat nose. Their complexion is a yellowish brown, with a ruddy tinge, and they are mostly devoid of beard, with very little hair on the face, while their features unmistakably exhibit the true Mongolian Tatar type.

The Tajeeks, or trading and industrial classes, are usually good-looking, with a high forehead, full expressive eyes with dark eyelashes, thin delicate nose, a short upper lip, and a rosy complexion. Their beards are large and full, often of a brownish and even reddish hue. They are stouter and with fuller faces than the high caste men of the Upper Provinces of India, though evidently sprung from the same Indo-Persian stock.

All these tribes are Soonees, and regard the Ameer of Bokhara as inferior only to the Sooltan-i-Roum, or Emperor of Constantinople. It was the Ameer, indeed, who bestowed upon their present ruler, Yakoob Beg, the title of Atalik Ghazee, or Leader of the Champions of the Faith, and, more recently, of Ameer. In the Kilian valley, however, dwells a colony of Sheeahs, comprising about forty families, who crossed, some fifty years ago, from Wakhan, over the Pameer, and live quite