Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/171

 the day, and the thermometer registered 59° Fahr. in the shade. The Peiho was free of ice, and flocks of wild duck (Anas rutila, A. boschas) and merganser (Mergus merganser and M. serrator) could be seen. These birds and other varieties of waterfowl and wading-birds make their appearance here in numerous flocks in the first half of the month, not only in the environs of Peking, but even near Kalgan where the climate is sensibly colder. Not venturing to continue their flight to the north where the breath of spring has not yet made itself felt, they keep to the flooded fields, which at this season are irrigated by the agricultural Chinese. One fine clear morning the impatient flocks essay a flight over the high lands, but if met by cold or bad weather they again return to the warm plains, where day by day their numbers increase, till at length the expected hour arrives; the deserts of Mongolia are slightly warmed, the ice-bound soil of Siberia has begun to thaw, and flock after flock hasten to leave their confined quarters in a foreign land and wing their way towards their haunts in the distant north.

Beyond Ku-peh-kau in the direction of Dolon-nor the mountains form a belt 100 miles in width, composed of a number of parallel chains running east and west, of no great elevation, yet often