Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/265

Rh city, which is likewise the head-quarters of the Moosulman governor of that province.

'The third city, or Yooroong-kash, the city of the rapid river, is only a kos (mile and a half English, nearly) and a half distant from Elechee to the east, and contains a thousand houses.

'Cheera, the fourth city, is situated to the south three days' journey distant from Yooroong-kash, contains two thousand houses, and its district is particularly famous for the production of silk.

'Kurreea, the fifth city, is distant from Cheera four days' journey, in the direction of south-south-east, and contains four thousand houses.

'Yungee-kishlak, the sixth city, is four days' journey distant from Kurreea, in the direction of south-south-east, and contains a thousand houses. My reporter cannot form any satisfactory estimate of the number of the inhabitants of the districts belonging to the cities. In the mountains there are from three to four hundred houses of shepherds: but by far the greatest proportion of this very numerous class is nomadic, without other habitations than tents. Rating the population of the cities by six persons to each house,–which, from what I have seen of the towns of this country (Ladakh), is rather below than above the average–it will amount to one hundred and two thousand individuals, independently of the inhabitants of the districts.

'The road from Yarkund to Karakash is divided into stages, or journies, of which the following are usually taken by travellers not encumbered by baggage.

'But a kafilah can with difficulty make more than ten or twelve kos in a day. At the distance of seven kos from Karakash, on the way to Choulak, the face of the country is covered with a deep fine sand, extremely light, and so subject to shift and to efface all common indications of a road, as to have rendered it necessary to mark its line by a double row of wooden posts, which extend without interruption as far as Karakash.

'The greatest length of the country of Khoten is about twelve days' journey from west to east, its breadth only two days' journey from south to north.