2IO SALT LAKE OF TABASUN-NOR. 



best of all ; but we had none with us during the first 

 year of the expedition. 



I have stated that the kara-sulta frequents the 

 wildest part of the desert; but on one occasion, 

 whilst returning from Ala-shan to Peking, in No- 

 vember 1870, we saw a number of these antelope 

 in the valley of the Hoang-ho near the Sheiten-ula 

 range, where they kept near the Chinese population 

 and the cultivated fields. Here, contrary to their 

 habits, they were the reverse of shy, of course be- 

 cause they had become accustomed to man, and had 

 never been hunted. Their rutting season is in No- 

 vember ; the young ones being born in May. These 

 creatures are far less numerous in Mongolia than the 

 dzeren. 



Soon after leaving the Kurai-hundu, we arrived 

 at the Mongol temple of Karganti, whence there 

 is a road across the sands of Kuzupchi to the 

 salt lake of Tabasun-nor. This lake, described by 

 Huc,^ is about 66 miles from the shore of the 

 Hoang-ho, and according to the Mongols about 20 

 to 25 miles in circumference. The salt obtained 

 here is taken to the neighbouring provinces of China. 



Leaving the Tabasun-nor road on one side, we 

 continued our journey up the valley of the Hoang- 

 ho, and after a day's march came to another temple 

 demolished by the Dungans, called Shara-tsu. At 

 this temple, one of the most important in the whole 

 of Ordos, as many as 2,000 lamas and two or three 



' Hue, Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartaric et Ic Thibet, t. i. 

 PP- 330-334- 



