Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/271

Rh 'The trade between Hindoostan and Khoten was formerly very extensive; and it is even said, though I presume rather figuratively, that a loaded cart could go all the way from Nugeebad to Sureekeea, in the mountains of Khoten. Sureekeea is said to be about half way between Yarkund and Karakash, on a road somewhat circuitous, and the following are the stages on the route to it from Yarkund, viz.

Sureekeea was frequented by the merchants of Hindoostan on account of its quarries of jasper or agate, once much used for drinking cups and ornaments for the person. And although the white marble employed in the mausoleum at Agra and Sekomdra may have been extracted from the neighbourhood of Joudpoor, it is not improbable but that some of the materials for the flower work and tracery may have been brought from the mountains of Khoten 'The road from Sureekeea towards Hindoostan is reported to have passed by Rudokh and Gurkh-dokh, but at this latter point information stops. Perhaps the more direct line from Gurkh-dokh to Nugeebad lies across the Neetee Ghat, through Neetee, and probably by Joshee Muth, but I saw not any traces of an ancient road between Neetee and the Pindar river. Having crossed this stream and proceeded one march on our return in 1812, some demonstrations among the Goorkha troops who accompanied us, betrayed an intention to stop us, and this being supported by private communications from the peasantry to me, I determined to take a line of road parallel to that on which we had been previously disposed to go, but some miles distant, though joining it again in a day and a half's journey.'The object of this deviation was to avoid some narrow paths, through very high grass in low grounds, in which our progress might have been arrested without a favourable opportunity for employing resistance. My companion preferring the old road, I started soon after midnight on the new one, which led over the sides of mountains by a narrow but exposed path, from every point of which much of the adjoining country could be seen. 'In the early part of the forenoon I suddenly came upon a road continuous with the path, but much different in character. This road was about six feet in breadth, regularly and substantially paved with small pebbles in some parts, and in others formed of levelled rock. On the right hand the rock was cut up here and there somewhat in the form of a hall, and on the left side of the mountain, for some yards, was gently sloped downwards. In one part two conduits, or pipes, of a harder stone than that of the mountain land, of a different nature, delivered each a small stream of clear and excellent water from the rock into the road for the convenience of travellers. The.