DESERT OF GOBI. 17 



road, which crosses it diagonally. Here the barome- 

 trical levels of Fuss and Bunge in 1832, the journeys 

 of Timkowski, Kowalevsky, and other savants, some 

 of whom have generally accompanied our ecclesiastical 

 missions to China, have enlightened us on the topo- 

 graphy and physical character of this part of Asia. 

 Lastly, the recent journey of the astronomer Fritsche 

 on the Eastern Gobi, and my own observations in 

 its south-eastern, southern, and central parts, have 

 supplied, not merely conjectural but most accurate 

 data concerning the topography, climate, flora, and 

 fauna of the eastern half of the great desert of 

 Central Asia. 



The barometrical levellinof of Fuss and BuuQ-e first 

 exploded the theory, till then prevalent among geo- 

 graphers, of the great height (8,000 feet) of the 

 whole Gobi, reducing it to 4,000 feet. Further ob- 

 servations by the same savants proved that in the 

 direction of the Kiakhta-Kalran caravan road the 

 absolute height of the plateau in the middle part 

 sinks to 2,400 feet, or as Fritsche will have it, even 

 to 2,000 feet ; and this depression continues for 

 about sixty-five miles, but does not extend far to 

 the east, as Fritsche's journey showed, nor to the 

 west, as we found on our march from Ala-shan to 

 Urga, through the centre of the desert. It should 

 also be mentioned that the Eastern Gobi is not so 

 thoroughly desert in character as it becomes towards 

 the south and west. Thus, the plains in Ala-shan, 

 and in the vicinity of Lake Lob, are sterile and 

 desolate in the extreme. 

 VOL. I. с 



