Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/210

 crossed is about seventeen miles, and its general direction south-west and north-east.

In a narrow rocky belt extending along the south-eastern border of the Shara-hada mountains, bushes are plentiful; the prevailing kinds being the hazel (Ostryopsis Davidiana), the yellow briar (Rosa pimpinellifolia), the wild peach (Prunus sp. ), and the spiræa; the barberry (Berberis sp.), currant (Ribes pulchellum), cotoneaster, honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.), and juniper (Juniperus communis), are more rare. Here we found, for the first time in Mongolia, a number of insects, and my companion made some important additions to his entomological collection.

The Suma-hada, another and a wilder range, about thirty miles distant, lies parallel with that just mentioned. But even here the precipitous cliffs and deep valleys are only developed on the margin of the range; the inner slopes being of softer and more gradual outline, with rich pasture and arable land partly cultivated by Chinese.

The height of the Suma-hada above sea-level is greater than that of the Shara-hada, but their elevation above the plain is nearly the same. Their cliffs, exclusively composed of granite, are rounded and worn down by glacial action, of which there are unmistakable evidences on the surface. The wilder