THE KUZUPCHI SAND-DRIFTS. 193 



signifies collar, and is very appropriate on account of 

 the distinct fringe which they form along the valley, 

 from the meridian of Bautu for 200 miles up its 

 course, where they cross to the left bank and cover 

 the whole of Ala-shan. The sands of Kuzupchi are 

 a succession of hillocks (40, 50, rarely 100 feet 

 high) lying side by side and composed of yellow 

 sand. The upper stratum of this sand, when dis- 

 turbed by the wind blowing on either side of the 

 hills, forms loose drifts which have the appearance 

 of snow-drifts.^ 



The effect of these bare yellow hillocks is most 

 dreary and depressing when you are among them, 

 and can see nothing but the sky and the sand ; not 

 a plant, not an animal, is visible, with the single 

 exception of the yellowish grey lizards [Phryiwce- 

 phalus sp.) which trail their bodies over the loose soil 

 and mark it with the patterns of their tracks. A dull 

 heaviness oppresses the senses in this inanimate sea of 

 sand. No sounds are heard, not even the chirping of 

 the grasshopper ; the silence of the tomb surrounds 

 you. No wonder that the local Mongols relate some 

 marvellous stories about these frightful deserts. 

 They tell you that this was the scene of the principal 



' The subsoil of the sands of Kuzupchi is hard clay, the same as 

 the л'аИеу of the Hoang-ho. This phenomenon remarkably confirms 

 the hypothesis of Ordos having once been the bed of a lake which 

 forced a passage for itself to the ocean by the present channel of the 

 Hoang-ho ; the former shallows of this lake are now sand-drift. The 

 probability of this conjecture being true is further confirmed by the 

 historical documents of the Chinese which make mention of great in- 

 undations in the region of the modern Hoang-ho, 3,100 and 2,300 

 years B.C. — Ritter's Erdkicnde von Asten. [See Supplementary Note.] 



VOL. I. О 



