Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/180

 steppe fire. Although we had seen many such conflagrations in the mountains on the border, purposely lighted by the inhabitants to consume last year's withered grass, this spectacle far surpassed any we had yet beheld.

Towards evening a small light was visible on the horizon, which in the course of two or three hours became a long line of fire advancing rapidly across the open plain. A solitary hill in the centre was soon enveloped in flames, and appeared like a great building burning above the rest. The heavens were cloaked with clouds refulgent with a purple glow, which threw a lurid glare far and wide over the steppe; columns of smoke rose in fantastic shapes till they were lost to the eye in a confused, indistinct mass. In the foreground lay the vast plain lighted up by the burning belt; behind, the darkness of night, which seemed blacker and more impenetrable than ever; the lake resounded with the loud cries of startled birds, while all was still and quiet on the plain.

Dalai-nor lies to the north of the hills of Guchin-gurbu, and is the largest of the lakes of South-east Mongolia. In shape it is a flattened ellipse with an axis elongated from north-east to south-west. Its western shore is indented by several bays, but the remainder of its coast-line is almost unbroken. Its water is salt, and, according to the natives, very deep; but we could hardly believe this statement,