200 LAKE TSAIDEMING-NOR. 



the dead calm of the atmosphere, only occasionally 

 stirred by a light south-westerly breeze. 



Our expectations with regard to Lake Tsaide- 

 ming-nor ^ were realised. This marshy lake literally 

 swarmed with ducks and geese which supplied us 

 with food ; the camels pastured unmolested on the 

 neighbouring meadows ; and we procured as much 

 butter and milk as we required from the Mongols 

 encamped near the lake. To add to our comforts, 

 we were encamped by the side of the Tahilga, a 

 clear stream flowing into the lake, in which we 

 could bathe as often as we liked. In fact, never 

 before or afterwards were we so well off in Mon- 

 golia. 



On the road to Tsaideming-nor we passed 

 another lake, Urgun-nor, on the banks of which, 

 and in the adjoining valley of the Hoang-ho, there 

 is a tolerably thick Chinese population mixed with 

 Mongols, who live partly in yurtas and partly in 

 houses. Some of the latter cultivate the soil, but 

 they dislike labour, and their fields may be at 

 once distinguished from those of the Chinese. In 

 one respect only are the Mongols not behind the 

 Chinese, viz. in smoking opium. This frightful vice 

 is terribly prevalent in China, into which opium is 

 imported by Englishmen from India. The Chinese 

 also prepare it for themselves, and plant whole fields 

 with the poppy. But its cultivation being forbidden 

 by law, those fields of poppy which we saw in the 



' Lake Tsaideming-nor is actually a marsh, thickly covered with 

 reeds and different kinds of marshy grasses. 



