SANDY TRACTS OF ALA-SHAN. 233 



where the last remnant of its ancient \vaters are 

 collected. 



The desert of Ala-shan for many dozens, aye, 

 hundreds of miles presents nothing but naked 

 sands, ever ready to overpower the traveller with 

 their burnine heat or smother him beneath their 

 sandstorms. Some of these sands are so extensive 

 as to be called by the Mongols Tingeri, i.e. ' sky.' 

 Not a drop of water is to be found in them ; no 

 birds, no animals are visible ; and their deathlike 

 solitude fills with involuntary dread the soul of the 

 man who has wandered here. 



The Kuzupchi or sandy tracts of Ordos appear 

 small in comparison with those of Ala-shan. Amid 

 the former oases may occasionally be seen covered 

 with vegetation ; whilst here no such spots relieve 

 the boundless expanse of yellow sand, alternating Avith 

 vast areas of saline clay, and nearer the mountains 

 with bare shingle. Such vegetation as may be seen 

 is of the poorest description, comprising only a few 

 stunted bushes and some dozens of kinds of grasses. 

 In both one and the other category the saxaicl, called 

 by the Mongols zak {Haloxylon sp.), and the grass 

 sulhir [Agj^iophylltim Gobictmi), are most prominent. 



In Ala-shan the saxaiil ox zak has an arborescent 

 "Towth of 10 to 12 feet in heio'ht, with a thickness of 

 half-a-foot,^ and is generally found on the bare sand. 

 Its wood is too knotty and porous to be of any 



use in handicraft, but it makes excellent fuel, and 



« 



* Occasional trees may be seen, 18 feet high, with a stem a foot 

 tliick. 



