198 TRACES OF DUNG AN INSURRECTION. 



1869, the valley of the Hoang-ho is inhabited only 

 for sixty miles to the west of the ferry of Lang- 

 haisa ; beyond that point there is no one, and even 

 the footpaths are so overgrown with grass that not 

 a trace of former inhabitants remains. You may 

 occasionally see a ruined village or the skeleton of a 

 Mongol killed by Dungans half devoured by wolves. 

 We were reminded of the words of Humboldt, who 

 remarked that the historian who traces back past 

 ages, and the geographer who travels over the earthy 

 find everywhere the monotonous desolate picture of 

 warring humanity. 



We will now return to the narrative of our jour- 

 ney. The day following our crossing the Hoang- 

 ho we were also obliged to cross its arm the Baga- 

 khatun, which is 350 feet wide and 6^ miles distant 

 from the main river. The ferry, called Li-vang-ti, 

 is kept by Chinese, who extorted a good sum for 

 taking us over. We pitched our tent on the 

 other side with the intention of continuing our 

 journey early the following morning. We were, 

 however, quite unexpectedly detained here four days. 

 The reason of this was first a heavy rain, which 

 poured in torrents the whole day, soaking the clayey 

 soil of the valley of the Hoang-ho to such an 

 extent that our camels were quite unable to pro- 

 ceed ; then one of our camels recently bought at 

 Bautu strayed, and the Cossack and Mongol were 

 two whole days looking for it. 



In the meanwhile we were obliged to wait at the 

 ferry of Li-vang-ti, where our tent was constantly 



