Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/253

Rh ice were piled up on the shore, and on the frozen expanses that still remained unbroken.

The water now rapidly cleared, and in a week it was quite open; the floes having been partly driven by the wind into the bays on the western shore, and partly washed on to land. But night frosts continued with their usual severity, the thermometer registering 11° Fahr., and the temperature falling after sunset as rapidly as it rose on bright still mornings.

The winds, which were almost of daily occurrence, mostly blew from the east and west, the former always moderate and wafting the chilly air of the lake to its western shore, the latter, although from a warm quarter, raged with great fury, bringing clouds of dust.

In the beginning of April migratory birds were extremely scarce. By the 13th of the month, though we had seen thirty-nine kinds (inclusive of those noted in Tsaidam), yet no large flocks of geese, ducks, or other birds had passed over, and the shores of the lake and river were inanimate, without any of those sounds which usually accompany the