or of
rural happiness and simplicity, are but oases in an enormous extent
of barren country. If each proprietor seems to possess more land than
he can require, and if the fertile soil produces bountifully that
which is unskilfully sown therein, the total amount of land under
cultivation is still very limited indeed. Worse still, the soil is
gradually exhausted, and as the system of sowing but one kind of grain
seems to have taken deep root among the people, it is to be feared that
it may be perpetuated without hope of recovery. There is a constant
difficulty to be overcome, too, on account of the meagre supply of
water. The general aspect of the region is barren, a bleak expanse
stretches in all directions, and in the distance on three sides the
outlines of lofty ranges complete the panorama. The scarcely marked
bridle track that supplies the place of a highway in every direction
except where the Chinese have left permanent tokens of their presence,
offers little inducement to travellers to come thither; nor must these
when they do come expect anything but the most imperfect modes of
communication and of supply that a backward Asiatic district can
furnish. If we wish to imagine the scene along the road from Sanju to
Yarkand, we have only to visit some of the wilder of the Sussex Wealds
to have it before us in miniature. The spare dried-up herbage may be
still more spare, and the limestone may be more protruding on the
Central Asian plain; and the wind will certainly remind you that it
comes either from the desert or from the mountain regions; but you have
the same undulating, dreary expanse that you have above Crowborough. The
miserable sheep watched by some nomad Kirghiz will alone forcibly remind
you that you are far away from the heights of the South Downs. In the
far distance you will see the cloud-crested pinnacles of the Sanju Devan
or of the Guoharbrum, and then the traveller cannot but remember that he
is in one of the most inaccessible regions in the world. But if these
southern roads are scarcely worthy of the name, the great high road from
Kashgar to Aksu, Kucha, Korla, Karashar, and Turfan is a masterpiece of
engineering construction. It need not fear to brave comparison with
those of imperial Rome herself, and remains an enduring monument to
Chinese perseverance, skill, and capacity for government. In China
itself there are many great and important highways, but there the task
was facilitated by the possessi