Note on the Headwaters of the Yarkand River

DURING the summer of 1927 my husband (Lieut.-Colonel G. K. Gregson, r.a.) and I ade a deviation from the main trade route in the course of a journey from Srinagar to Yarkand. Following in the tracks of Colonel Wood, Major Kenneth Mason, and other explorers, we left the Kara? koram Pass on our right and branched off to the north-west over an easy watershed to the valley called in earlier reports Valley A, reaching thereby the country at the headwaters of the Yarkand River, usually known as the Amphitheatre. We were neither trained nor equipped to attempt any explora? tion of value, but possibly one or two of our observations may be of interest. Leaving Chajos Jilga camping ground on the main trade route early in the morning of 14 July 1927, we reached a point at the upper or southern end of the Amphitheatre, near the confluence of stream A with the Yarkand River, on the same afternoon. The weather was warm and fine, and the stream rose considerably in the course of the afternoon, but presented no serious difficulty to our ponies. My husband shot some Imperial sand-grouse for our larder near the watershed, but we saw no other animal life except one female Tibetan antelope and her calf. The crows, vultures, and other birds of ill omen which haunt the trade route were left behind us, along with the corpses of packanimals which decorate that Via Dolorosa

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