Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/98

 of a herd of these antelope on myself and companion. We went after them day after day, to the extreme dissatisfaction of our Mongols, who had to wait hours for us, and at length became so discontented that we could only appease them by giving them a share of the spoil.

Notwithstanding the barrenness and desolate appearance of the Gobi, the road to Kalgan was kept amply alive by the tea-caravans which passed us by the dozen daily. I will presently describe one of these caravans, but now let us go back to the plateau of Mongolia.

After leaving the Khalka country, we passed through the land of the Sunni Mongols, and left behind the most barren part of the Gobi, entering a more fertile belt, which forms a fringe on the south-east, as a like belt does on the north, to the wild and barren centre of the plateau. The surface of the country now becomes more uneven, and is covered with excellent grass, on which the Chakhar Mongols pasture their numerous herds. These people are the frontier police of China Proper, having been enrolled in the government service, and divided into eight banners. Their country is about 130 miles in width, but its length from east to west is nearly three times as much.

Owing to their constant intercourse with the Chinese, the Chakhars of the present day have lost not only the character, but also the type, of pure Monqols. Preserving the native idleness of their past existence, they have adopted from the Chinese