Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/272

 the dead calm of the atmosphere, only occasionally stirred by a light south-westerly breeze. Our expectations with regard to Lake Tsaideming-nor were realised. This marshy lake literally swarmed with ducks and geese which supplied us with food; the camels pastured unmolested on the neighbouring meadows; and we procured as much butter and milk as we required from the Mongols encamped near the lake. To add to our comforts, we were encamped by the side of the Tahilga, a clear stream flowing into the lake, in which we could bathe as often as we liked. In fact, never before or afterwards were we so well off in Mongolia.

On the road to Tsaideming-nor we passed another lake, Urgun-nor, on the banks of which, and in the adjoining valley of the Hoang-ho, there is a tolerably thick Chinese population mixed with Mongols, who live partly in yurtas and partly in houses. Some of the latter cultivate the soil, but they dislike labour, and their fields may be at once distinguished from those of the Chinese. In one respect only are the Mongols not behind the Chinese, viz. in smoking opium. This frightful vice is terribly prevalent in China, into which opium is imported by Englishmen from India. The Chinese also prepare it for themselves, and plant whole fields with the poppy. But its cultivation being forbidden by law, those fields of poppy which we saw in the