Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/122

Rh the soil makes the fish fat, and gives them a fine flavour.

As the banks of the Tarim upon entering the lake are flat, the dwellers on Lob-nor cannot employ the same method of ensuring food for the winter, but wherever it is possible they dig trenches between the river and the lakelets, and place nets there. Owing, however, to the vast quantity of fish, other modes of taking them are equally successful. We were told that Lob-nor freezes over in November, and thaws early in March, the ice being from one to two feet thick.

In winter when frost drives southwards the innumerable water-fowl, animal life becomes very scarce. At such times the reeds are only tenanted by small flocks of the bearded titmouse (Panurus barbatus), Cynchramus schœniclus, and C. pyrrhuloides. Now and again a kite (Circus rufus, C. cyanus) wings its noiseless, stealthy flight overhead. In the salt marshes along the shore you may occasionally flush a covey of small larks (Alaudula leucophæa?); woodpeckers, Rhodopophilus deserti, and Passer ammodendri are sometimes found in the tamarisk bushes; black crows (C. orientalis) haunt the villages, and an occasional chough (Podoces Biddulphii) may be found on the drier ground. If to these be added