Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/22

4 that a camel load of salt fetches 1½ to 2 lans, 7s. 6d. to 10s., at Bautu. The environs of this lake are almost devoid of vegetation, and present a desolate aspect, particularly in summer, when the heat is so intense as to put a stop for a time to the salt industry.

The sparkling surface of Djaratai-dabas appears like water in the distance, and resembles ice when you are near it. So deceptive is its appearance that a flock of swans, apparently attracted by the sight of water in the desert, descended before our very eyes almost to the surface of the false lake, but discovering their mistake rose again in the air with affrighted cry, and continued their flight.

In the north of Ala-shan, not far from the well of Moriteh, where we halted in consequence of the illness of M. Pyltseff, there rises from the plain a comparatively small but rugged group of mountains, the Khan-ula or Haldzyn-burgontu, forming the last elbow of the border range on the left bank of the Hoang-ho. This range, known to the Mongols as the Kara-narin-ula (black pointed mountains), begins at the Haliutai River, and continuing in a south-westerly direction for about 200 miles as far as the northern boundary of Ala-shan, terminates in some low rocky hills rising from the sandy plain; its southern branches, which attain a considerable height at Khan-ula, but soon diminish in size, alone extending a short distance beyond Djaratai-dabas.