MONO TO NO US A SPECT OF THE MONGOL PLAINS. 1 69 



live exclusively on millet porridge. At length I 

 shot a pygarg, and when the Mongols saw they 

 could not starve us out, they began selling us butter 

 and milk. 



We obtained very few specimens of birds ; in- 

 deed since we left Kalgan, this branch of our re- 

 searches had not made great progress, for besides 

 the scarcity of the feathered tribe, it was their moult- 

 ing time, and most of those we shot were unfit for 

 preserving. With the insects, however, we were 

 more fortunate, and still more so with the plants, 

 many herbaceous varieties being in flower. The 

 rains, usually accompanied by thunder, were incessant 

 during the month of June, and the dryness of the 

 previous month was succeeded by great moisture. 

 But the violent storms which prevailed in May 

 were now replaced by calm, sultry weather. Under 

 such favourable conditions as these vegetation 

 rapidly developed ; early in June the plains and 

 mountain sides were becoming green, and flowers 

 appeared in great profusion and variety, although 

 the steppes of South-east Mongolia^ bear no compari- 

 son with our meadow-land in Europe. Here you 

 never see that uninterrupted carpet of flowers, or 

 that delicate green turf ; these plains under the most 

 favourable conditions have a melancholy aspect, and 

 everything is as monotonous as though made to 

 measure. The grass grows in clumps of even 

 height, and not of a bright green, the flowers lack 



^ I refer to those plains due west of the Suma-hada, where we 

 passed the summer : in the Chakhar country the meadow-land proba- 

 bly presents a more cheerful aspect at this season. 



