Dec. 8, 1887] 



NA TURE 



141 



Pec. 

 II 



12 

 12 



13 



9 ••• 



Venus in conjunction with and 2° 37' south 



of the Moon. 

 Venus at least distance from the Sun. 

 Jupiter in conjunction with and 4° 16' south 



of the Moon. 

 Mercury in conjunction with and 3° 24' south 



of the Moon. 



M. POTANIN'S JOURNEYS IN EAST TIBET 

 AND EAST GOBI. 



A CONDENSED report of the results obtained by the three 

 ■**■ years' journey of MM. Potanin, Skassy, and Berezovsky, 

 in China, Amdo plateau of Tibet at the sources of the Hoang- 

 ho, and East Gobi, has just appeared in the Russian Izvestia of 

 the Geographical Society (iii. 1887.) Without repeating what 

 has already been mentioned in his letters, M. Potanin gives in 

 his paper a masterly sketch of the physical characteristics of 

 the various regions explored by his expedition. 



The route followed was from Peking, across the Utai-shan 

 mountains which border the Peking depression in the west, and 

 where the well-known Utai Buddhist monasteries are situated, 

 to the city of Kuku-khoto. Thence south, across the Ordos 

 region, to Lan-tcheu, capital of the Han-su province, and to 

 San-tchuan on the middle Hoang-ho, where M. Potanin spent 

 the winter of 1884-85, while M. Skassy wintered at the above 

 city, and M. Berezovsky at Hoi-siang, on the Sy-tchuan 

 frontier of the Han-su province. Thence the expedition pro- 

 ceeded south-east tp Min-lcheu on the Tao-he, and to Sun-pan. 

 Lun-an-fu was the utmost point reached towards the south, and 

 the expedition returned to Lan-tcheu to spend the second 

 winter at the Humbum monastery, close by Si-nin. The third 

 summer was spent for the return journey, which was made via 

 Kuku-nor, across the mountains which separate the Tsaidam 

 from the Mongolian plateau, and the cities of Han-tcheu and Su- 

 tcheu. Then, taking a course due north, the expedition crossed 

 the Gobi, as also several ridges continuing the Ek-tag Altai in 

 the east, and the Hanghai ridge, and reached the Orkhon River, 

 whence it proceeded to Kiakhta and across Siberia to Russia. 



The Peking plain, covered with fertile loess, is separated by 

 a series of three ridges built up of gneisses and limestones, 

 from the plateau of the Ordos, watered by the middle Hoang-ho. 

 Of Europeans, only M, Przewalski, the missionary Hue, and 

 M. Potanin's expedition have visited the Ordos— a plateau about 

 3300 feet high, covered with shifting sands, the best part of 

 which is on their eastern border. Owing to the moistness 

 brought by the numerous streams which flow towards the 

 Hoang-ho, the sands on the eastern border are not so bad as 

 those described further west by M. Przewalski, and the barkhans 

 are covered with bushes of Shyavyk, Artemisice, Hedysarum 

 larvi, and thickets of the Pugio7tium cornutum — a new .shrub 

 discovered by Przewalski ; sometimes dark growths of Thuja 

 cover the barkhans. The hollows between the sandy hills are 



either covered with some bushes or occupied by the fields of the 

 Mongols, who chiefly grow setaria, buckwheat, and hemp. The 

 wet depressions, covered by meadow-grasses and partly with 

 Halophytes, and called tchaidams, are enlivened by the herds 

 and the mud huts of the half-nomadic Mongols. The sands are 

 steadily moved by the winds from the south-west towards the 

 north-east, and this constant motion explains why the Chinese 

 gave to the sand-desert the name of Sha-he, or " River of 

 Sand." 



In the highlands which connect the Tibet mountains with 

 those of Shan-si the expedition spent fifty days. Thick layers 

 of loess cover there the horizontal layers of salt-bearing sand- 

 stones and conglomerates. The region is a high plateau deeply 

 burrowed by the cations of the rivers, which sometimes are 

 2CKX> feet deep, and are cut both through the loess and the 

 sandstones. The narrow caflons are mostly waterless, while the 

 broader ravines are watered by rivers and therefore are the 

 seat of many villages. There is little wind or rain, and the 

 atmosphere is charged with dust. 



In Tibet the expedition crossed only the Amdo plateau, 

 separated from the Mongolian plateau by the Nan-shan 

 ridge. For 400 miles the expedition crossed there a region the 

 lowest parts of which rise above 7000 and 8000 feet. Even the 

 Hoang-ho at Gui-dui has an altitude of 7600 feet, and the 

 valley of the E-tsin at the Pabor-ta-sy monastery is 8000 feet 

 high ; the valleys of the Urunvu and the Tumun-guan are 

 at altitudes of from more than 9000 to lo.oaa feet. The highest 

 parts of the plateau rise, however, to 12,000 feet, and Lake 

 Kuku-nor is spreading its waters at the height of Alpine peaks, 

 i.e. 10,700 feet. Still higher grassy plateaus, where it never 

 rains but often snows, and marshes spread over large areas, rise 

 to the south of the lake. Only a few of the mountain-ridges which 

 inclose this plateau are snow-clad. It has a quite original flora, 

 discovered by General Przewalski. Forests are few ; as to the 

 high meadows, they are inhabited by nomad Tangutes, and, 

 on lower levels, by a mixed population of Chinese and settled 

 Mongols described under the name of Daldas. 



The Alpine highlands watered by the northern tributaries of 

 the Blue River, which separate the Amdo high plateau from 

 the Chinese lowlands, are the most picturesque part of China. 

 The routes which cannot follow the bottoms of the narrow 

 and rocky valleys pass over the mountains, flights of steps 

 being cut in the rocks, or wooden balconies being built 

 along the steep slopes of the rocky hills. Suspended bridges, 

 swinging under the weight of a mule, cross streams which flow 

 in a succession of rapids and waterfalls. The Chinese monsoons 

 deposit all their moistness on the south-eastern slopes of the 

 mountains ; thick forests, of Conifers on higher levels and of 

 deciduous trees lower down, clothe the mountain slopes. Maples, 

 lime-trees, oaks, Hehvingia, and a number of shrubs and climb- 

 ing plants are growing in impracticable thickets, while all crags 

 are thickly covered with ferns, mosses, and orchids. Mollusks 

 {Bulymus and Helix) cover the crags by thousands. And 

 finally at the foot of the mountains the sub-tropical flora — palms, 

 bamboos, banana-trees, and tea-trees — makes its appearance. 



The villages and the towns — clean and well-watered — are 

 strikingly picturesque, as the houses (with windows, like our 

 European dwellings) are built in the shape of amphitheatres on 

 the slopes of the steep forest-clothed hills. In some towns the 

 roofs of the houses are the workshops and sittinsr-places of the 

 inhabitants. The valley of the "Golden Lakes" — Kser-ntso — 

 with its background of snowy peaks is especially picturesqie. 



As to the region crossed between the Amdo plateau and 

 Kiakhta, it is sharply divided into two parts. The southern is 

 a true desert, which stretches towards the north as far as the 

 Khangai Mountains. The Nan-shan rises as an immensi snow- 

 clad wall on its southern border ; then comes a narrow strip <if 

 inhabited and cultivated land, which is followed by a gravelly 

 desert, where only a few trees of Haloxylon Ammodendron, 

 and bushes of Calligonum and Ephedra grow here and there, 

 while the course of the E-tsin is marked by narrow strips of 

 meadows covered with Elymus. The depression of the E-tsin, 

 which flows into the Gashiun-nor, has an altitude of only about 

 3000 feet, and it is bordered in the north by the Tostu ridge, 

 and three other parallel ridges, of which the northern is snow- 

 clad. The valleys which separate these four ridges are water- 

 less ; old river-beds, now dry, are seen on their bottoms, but 

 even the Haloxylon forests which formerly grew in their valleys 

 are now disappearing, only decayed trees having been seen by 

 the expedition. 



