being shown me by the authorities. From Koibyn
we proceeded up a mountain gorge that is described
as pretty by both Schuyler and Ujfalvy, who speak of
the varying yellow, red, and purple hues of the steep
and scarped rocks, as also of bushes covered with
blue, white, red, and yellow flowers; but we passed
this place in the night, and by dawn came within
sight of Vyselok Borokhudzir.
In passing the 60 miles from Altyn-Immel to Koibyn,
we had met more than/ one party of nomads flitting
to new pastures. A prominent individual among the
first cavalcade was a stout old lady riding astride a
fat ox. Other females of the party were all riding in
the same fashion, some on camels, with children in
front, and some on saddled oxen.* We saw in the
distance as we drove along Kirghese auls, with their
flocks and herds, which form their chief means of
subsistence, though some of the Kuldja nomads do,
to a certain extent, cultivate the soil-t
We had reached Borokhudzir, 3,900 feet above the
sea, prettily situated on the right bank of the river of
* I was subsequently favoured with a MS. copy of the late'st statistics
(for 1878) of the numbers, grades, domestic economy, dnd places of
resort of the nomad population of Kuldja ; from which it appears that
in the five vollosts of the northern, and five of the southern, divisions of
the province there were 13,000 tents, with a population of 31,600 males/
and 26,400 females. Of these, 36,000 were Kirghese, and the remainder
Tatars, Kalmuks, etc. So far as there are any grades among the nomads,
one may distinguish in the province 14 sultan or aristocratic families,
4 000 igintchas, or poor, and 1,000 mullahs.
f t In 1878 they sowed of wheat, barley,' and millet, 819 tons ; and
reaped 21,925 tons, or a twenty-seven-fold harvest. To this may be
added the wheat, barley, rice, millet, and clover of the settled inhabitants
of the province, sown to the amount of 5,980 tons, with a result of
107,632 tons reaped, or nearly a twenty-fold increase. Kostenko states
that about Kuldja, crops of wheat return 30 per cent. The cattle of the
nomads numbered 750,000 (of which 107,000 are reported to have died
during the year) and the cattle of the settled-inhabitants 182,000.
that name, on September 1st, and had I been a devotee
of “ Saint Partridge” there would have been no need for
me to long for the turnip fields of Old England wherein
to keep the festival, for the surrounding woods were
full of game, including not only Partridges, but Pheasants,
greyish Hares, and abundance of Deer. For some
years previous to the Russian occupation of Kuldja,
Borokhudzir was the Russian outpost in this direction,
and during the Dungan insurrection a corps was stationed
here to prevent infringements of the Russian
boundary. Here, too, were stored up, after the seizure
of Kuldja, the arms taken from the Dungans and
Taranchis. After the annexation of Kuldja, the force
stationed here (in 1877) consisted of 100 men and
2 guns ; but at the time of my visit I am under
the impression there were more, in prospect of Kuldja
being ceded to the Chinese, and Borokhudzir becoming
again the frontier fort— the “ fortress ” meaning, if
I mistake not, a defensible barrack of four long
buildings, in the form of a square, and not a defence
with ramparts.
Peasant colonists from the Tomsk province of Siberia
have built a settlement near of about 50 whitewashed
houses of unbaked bricks, where is a post and telegraph
office, and a nursery garden, planted in 1869, for the
purpose of showing the natives how to develop the
vegetal capabilities of the country. General Kolpa-
kovsky, we heard, took great interest in this experiment,
and on our return journey we inspected the nursery.
It was watered by irrigation, and in the season furnished
occupation for from 30 to 50 men. The vines were
trained in bowers, of which there were many and long,
but the cheapness of fruit may be gathered from the
fact that a Sart paid only ^ 18 for all the season’s
v o l . 1. 13