Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/194

172 high border-land. Here the soil is clay and shingle, with occasional sand drift, where the saxaul, characteristic of Ala-shan, at once appears. The clay flats were for the most part entirely barren, bushes of karmyk and tamarisk only growing here and there.

A rare sight now met our eyes, for we came upon a few acres of cultivated land sown with barley and wheat. The largest plot of this cultivation covered from twenty to thirty acres near the encampment of Tsing-hai-wang, to whom it belonged. Agriculture is of quite recent introduction in Tsaidam, dating only from the time when, owing to the Dungan insurrection, communications with Tonkir were cut off, and the inhabitants could not obtain the needful supplies of the barley which forms their staple food.

Our course lay across nothing but salt marshes for 40 miles. There are no tracks here, and we steered in a straight line, first over the bare salt crust, and then over frozen clay. It was painful walking for the animals; some of the camels were lamed by it, and the dogs could hardly put their bleeding feet to the ground.

On November 30 we reached the station of the governor of the banner of Tsunof-zasak, whence the Gigen of Koko-nor had directed that we should be supplied with guides to Lhassa. We concealed the abandonment of our intention to go so far, in order to avoid suspicion. The prince hesitated for some time before selecting a guide for us. At length a Mongol, by name Chutun-dzamba, who had been