152 DIFFICULTIES IN CHANGING SILVER. 



ments, we wanted to change some lans (taels) o£ 

 silver into copper coin, in order to make a few pur- 

 chases, and knowing by experience the obstacles 

 we should encounter, increased by ignorance of the 

 Chinese language, I engaged a Mongol to help me. 

 We were certainly beset by difficulties. On entering 

 Tsagan-chulutai we were met by the usual uproar 

 and tumult ; I waited till the caravan had passed 

 out of the place, and then directed my steps to a shop 

 where they pronounced my silver (of the finest qua- 

 lity) to bo bad ; at another, we were told that it 

 contained bits of iron ; at a third, they flatly refused 

 to change it, and it was not till we tried a fourth 

 that we were successful. Here the shopman exa- 

 mined the metal for some time, sounded it, smelt it, 

 and at last, as a favour, offered i ,400 cash for a tael 

 of it. which was exactly 400 less than its local value. 

 Bargaining then commenced ; my Mongol argued 

 with the shopman with great spirit, pressed his 

 fingers inside the other's sleeve, and finally concluded 

 the transaction for 1,500 cash, which we received as 

 an equivalent for a tael of our silver at the manchan 

 rate of exchange, i.e. counting^^ each copper coin as 

 worth its intrinsic value, the dzelen or local reckon- 

 ing being at the rate of sixty for a hundred — this 

 being the fourth difference in the value of money we 

 had experienced since our departure from Dolon-nor. 

 The splendid pasturage we had noticed through- 

 out the country of the Chakhars terminated at the 

 Suma-hada mountains, and the further we went the 

 more scanty the fodder, and the thinner grew our 



