94 Professor Fournet’s Researches on the 
mous surface :—The kingdom of Kachgar, on the eastern side 
of the chain of Bolor, contains much sand, and but little land 
suitable for cultivation ; but the latter produces hemp, grapes, 
corn, and rice. The climate is temperate, and winds and 
rains occur regularly, although the latter are so little abun- 
dant as to be sometimes entirely awanting, and it becomes ne- 
cessary to have recourse to irrigations for agricultural pur- 
poses. The same is the case between Yar-Kand, Khotan, 
and the lake of Lob, nearly in the same latitude as Lisbon: 
snow is rare, and the sandy portions only present here and 
there a herbaceous vegetation, in the midst of which are to 
be seen some stunted thickets, some wild apricot trees, and 
false acacias. Lastly, towards the eastern extremity, near 
Erghi, the plain is covered with reeds and plants identical 
with those growing on the shores of the Caspian sea. It 
must be added, that, in the centre of the Gobi, a series of 
lakes is met with, in which rivers of considerable size lose 
themselves ; and that the sands which occur in this tract of 
country are considered by the Mongols as the remains of an 
inland sea, although its importance must not be exaggerated, 
inasmuch as a portion of the surface is rocky. Among the 
lakes alluded to, the most important are: to the north, those 
of Baba-Kul, Bastu-Noor, Barkul, and Turgut ; to the west, 
those of Lop-Noor, Gash-Noor, and Chas-So ; and to the east, 
those of Tabsun-Noor, Siao-Serteng, and Kharra: still fur- 
ther to the east the country becomes essentially sandy, con- 
tains no river, and approaches the Sahara in character. On the 
northern side of the chain of Thian-Chan, between Ourocontsi 
and Illi, there are rains, and near Ouromtsi, the snow which 
falls during the winter covers the surface to a depth of ten 
feet, and is of course still more abundant in the chain itself. 
A Chinese work, obtained by Humboldt, states, that 
around Tourfan (lat. 43° 30’, the same as that of Montpellier 
and Narbonne), “the heat is excessive in summer. A para- 
sol of fire covers the vault of heaven, and burning winds tra- 
verse the circumference of the country. On the sandy moun- 
tain, which extends to the south-east like a girdle, neither 
plants nor trees are to be seen; in winter, there are neither 
