We left Pamak on the 2nd of October, proceeding down the Yakhsu, where numerous kishlaks line the great diluvial terraces on either bank. The openings of side valleys on the left (south) ever disclose new forms and arrangements of conglomeratic fancy. Below Saripul the spurs of conglomerate begin to thin out, and near Sinji there is a last revelry in the shape of a comb of cylinders and slender finials. Here I shall describe an excursion which my wife and I made to the province of Kuliab towards the end of October, 1898. Below Saripul we struck out for a region of wavy hills among which lies the provincial town of Muminabad. When some years later I saw the loess landscape of the Kaiserstuhl and Kenzingen in the Rhine valley I was much impressed by the close and remarkable likeness it bore to the yellow slopes of Eastern Bokhara. There is the same general aspect of rounded swellings dotted with trees singly or in files, amid dry fields and powdered vineyards (compare Fig. 185). There are the same tray-like terraces, water cuts, and dust; and there is also in proud evidence the lime-loving walnut-tree, which may be called a characteristic denizen of loess hills and dry mountain slopes. It is a noteworthy fact that it avoids the plains, perhaps because they are too moist, or because it cannot gain a footing in the thick and spongy deposits of the irrigated country. It may also be that, as a wild tree, it has long ago been cut down in the lowlands, and is not cultivated owing to the slowness of its growth.