Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/282

 best of all; but we had none with us during the first year of the expedition.

I have stated that the kara-sulta frequents the wildest part of the desert; but on one occasion, whilst returning from Ala-shan to Peking, in November 1870, we saw a number of these antelope in the valley of the Hoang-ho near the Sheiten-ula range, where they kept near the Chinese population and the cultivated fields. Here, contrary to their habits, they were the reverse of shy, of course because they had become accustomed to man, and had never been hunted. Their rutting season is in November; the young ones being born in May. These creatures are far less numerous in Mongolia than the dzeren.

Soon after leaving the Kurai-hundu, we arrived at the Mongol temple of Karganti, whence there is a road across the sands of Kuzupchi to the salt lake of Tabasun-nor. This lake, described by Huc, is about 66 miles from the shore of the Hoang-ho, and according to the Mongols about 20 to 25 miles in circumference. The salt obtained here is taken to the neighbouring provinces of China.

Leaving the Tabasun-nor road on one side, we continued our journey up the valley of the Hoang-ho, and after a day's march came to another temple demolished by the Dungans, called Shara-tsu. At this temple, one of the most important in the whole of Ordos, as many as 2,000 lamas and two or three