swift stream, is crossed in small, rotten ferry-boats. On these our baggage was taken across; the horses and camels were fastened behind the boat, and were made to swim to the opposite bank. This swim proved very injurious to the camels, and three soon afterwards died from the effects of it. Beyond the Tekes our road lay continually in the same easterly direction by the valley of the Lower Kunges,[1] which is hardly distinguishable from that of the Upper Ili, excepting that feather-grass is more abundant. The hills, bordering the valley as before, are covered with grass, rounded in outline, and totally bare of trees as far as the river Tsanma. Here the traveller sees the last of the fields and encampments of the Turgutes;[2] beyond his point, as far as the Kara-shahr valley, no inhabitants are to be met with. The flora of the plain we had hitherto traversed from Kulja was very scanty; and the fauna equally deficient. The season too (latter half of August) was most unfavourable for ornithological researches and preparing skins, many of the birds being in the moulting stage. But snakes and lizards were
- ↑ [Colonel Yule informs me that the route followed by Colonel Prejevalsky seems to be the same as that of Shah Rukh's embassy to China in 1420, which went by the Kunges and Yulduz to Turfan.—M.]
- ↑ [The Turgutes or Torgutes, as already mentioned (vide supra, introductory remarks), are the Kalmuks of the present day, of whom remnants still exist on the Lower Volga.—See Wallace's Russia, ii. 52; and see also pp. 169—186 of this work.—M.]
