Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/84

18 As we have before stated, the Siberian character of the country, with its mountains, forests, and abundant supply of water irrigation, ceases near Urga, and from hence southwards nature assumes the true Mongolian aspect. After the first day's journey the traveller finds everything changed.

A boundless steppe, slightly undulating in some parts, in others furrowed with low rocky ridges, fades away in the bluish misty distance of the horizon without any break in its sameness. Here and there may be seen numerous herds and flocks of Mongols grazing, and their encampments frequently stand near the roadside. The road is so good as to be perfectly practicable for a tarantass.

The Gobi Proper has not yet begun, and the belt of steppe we are describing, with its soil of mingled clay and sand, clothed with excellent grass, serves as a prelude to it. This belt extends from Urga to the south-west along the Kalgan road for about 130 miles, and then imperceptibly shades off into the sterile plains of the Gobi Proper.

Even the Gobi is rather undulating than flat, although you sometimes come on tracts of perfectly level plain, extending unbroken for many miles together. These level tracts are particularly frequent in the central part of the plateau, whereas in the north and south there are plenty of low hills either in detached groups or in prolonged ridges, rising only a few hundred feet above the surrounding plains, and for the most part consisting of bare rocks. Their ravines and valleys are all marked by dry water-