Page:Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 1 (2nd edition).djvu/269

Rh 'Shawl-wool goats are not less numerous than sheep, and their fleeces are reported to be at least equal to those of Ladakh.

'Wild animals of various kinds are abundant. Camels have two humps; are generally brown, but sometimes of a white colour. They are of a large size, and so swift that men on the horses of the country can seldom overtake them if the camels get a little advantage in the start. They are pursued by hunters as game, their flesh being said to be particularly well fiavoured and much relished by the natives. Cloth is made from their wool.

'The Goorkhur, or wild ass, is common; as also are many varieties of deer, amongst which is the musk deer, the produce of which is proverbially fine. From a description of the stripes on the skin of a tiger, it would appear that the royal tiger roams on the mountains of Khoten. Leopards and wolves are numerous. Bears are of a yellowish colour, and not very large;—there are no black ones. Foxes, hares, and smaller quadrupeds are in abundance. The large variety of Francolin, which, I believe, has never been described, frequents the summits of the mountains; and the lesser kinds, with partridges and other feathered game, are found in great numbers lower down and near the plains.

'Fruit trees of almost all the sorts common in the southern parts of Europe are raised in the gardens of Khoten, as vines which are vastly productive, pomegranates, plums, peaches, apricots, pears, and apples. Melons are of good size, and well flavoured. Wheat, barley, maize, pease, and carrots are cultivated largely; but there is not any rice grown, the soil being too dry for this grain. The few forests existing scarcely deserve the name, there being few timber trees in them, and these are of the same character with those of Ladakh, as poplars and willows; but the mulberry abounds everywhere; and a vast quantity of silk is raised in this province, though a fine white cotton would seem to be its staple produce.

'The manufactures of Khoten consist principally of woollen, camlet, cotton, and silk cloths.

'The woollens got up in the loom are generally of a thick and coarse texture, or else thin and flimsy, and as yet none of these fabrics approach the nature of European broad cloths. But the felted cloths are large, fine, and well got up. Cotton cloths of a coarse kind are made in vast quantities. both for home use and for exportation. They are sent from every house to Peking in commutation for the capitation-tax, in Toorkee called Alban.

'The coin of Khoten is of silver and of copper;—the former, if coin it may properly be called, is in the shape of a boat, with the value stamped in Chinese characters on the concave side; the latter is struck in dies with a hole in the centre of each piece, which is of