Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/181

 because at a distance of several hundred paces from the shore its depth is not more than two or three feet. It is about forty miles in circumference, and is joined by four small streams: the Shara-gol and Gungir-gol on the east; the Holeh-gol and Shurga-gol on the west. The lake abounds in fish, of which we caught three kinds, Diplophysa sp., Squalius sp., and Gasterosteus sp. In summer the fish enter the mouths of the streams in large numbers; and in early spring several hundred Chinese, mostly houseless vagrants, make their appearance on its shores for the purpose of fishing, and remain till late in the autumn.

On the north and east it is bordered by saline plains, and on the west by rolling steppes; the hills of Guchin-gurbu closely approach its southern shore. Here stands a small group of hills, at the foot of which is the temple of Darhan-ula and a Chinese village. The inhabitants of the latter trade with the Mongols, who come here in large numbers during the summer for religious worship, and sometimes buy live fish from the fishermen, returning them to the lake in order to atone for their sins.

Dalai-nor lies at an elevation of 4,200 feet above the sea, its climate is, therefore, as rigorous as the rest of Mongolia. In the middle of April its shores were still frozen, and the ice on the lake itself is