Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/318

290 latter superior to the Chinese kind, but hitherto unused; its root ground into powder is an antidote to the bite of the phalangium.

The natural wealth of the Urumchi district is considerable. In the mountains south of Manas alluvial gold is found everywhere. The iron works near Urumchi are supported by government; the ore, however, only yields 13 per cent, of metal. Saltpetre is obtained at Yan-balgasun, and several thousand pounds of it are annually sent to the gunpowder manufactories at Ili and Tarbagatai. The talc found here is of excellent quality, and serves the inhabitants instead of glass. The mountains near Urumchi yield an abundance of excellent coal of different qualities; the best being found in the northern mountains; this burns without smell or smoke, is easily lighted, not quickly extinguishable, and leaves a perfectly white ash. The coal from the mountains west of the town is suitable for the kitchen and burns to a red ash; besides these there are two inferior qualities of mineral coal. The best charcoal is prepared from a tree called the soso; if fired in the evening, it will burn all night; the wood of this tree is very hard, but its root does not penetrate deep into the ground.

Salt is obtained in the lakes and is of a dark colour; red salt is brought from Turfan.

Urumchi, like Hami, is a great entrepôt for trade as well as for the transport and storage of merchandise. It has communications with China (via Hami), Turfan, Ili, and Tarbagatai, besides a direct road across the desert to Kuku-khoto, frequented by merchants. The merchants live in the suburbs of the old town in separate communities. Thus there are communities of Suh-chau, Lan-chau, and Kuku-khoto merchants, the latter known at Urumchi as 'guests from the Trans-Ordos country' (Peh-tau-keh), are