Page:From Kulja, across the Tian Shan to Lob-Nor (1879).djvu/123

104 a few pheasants, and wintering meadow-pipits, swans and bitterns, our list of the avi-fauna of Lob-nor will be complete.

The commonest forms of mammalia are the tiger, wolf, fox, wild boar, hare, and djiran, all in small numbers; of the lesser rodents, even such as sand-martens and mice, there are but very few.

In spring, however, especially at its commencement, Lob-nor is literally alive with water-fowl. Situated in the very midst of a wild and barren desert, half-way between north and south, it serves without doubt as an admirable resting-place for birds of passage, belonging to the web-footed and wading orders.

Were there no Tarim water-system, their flight would doubtless take a very different direc- tion. But for this lake, they would find no resting-place between India and Siberia, and the winged travellers could never cross in one flight the whole distance from the Himalayas to the Tian-Shan.

Before proceeding to describe spring on Lob-nor, let us say a few words about its inhabitants, the Kara-Kurchintsi, who inhabit eleven villages mostly situated in the midst of Lob-nor; of these the following is a list: Cheglik, six houses; Tuguz-ata, eleven; Abdallah, six; Kuchak-ata, two; Kum-chapkan, fifteen; Kum-luk, four;