234 FLOUR OF THE SULHIR CRASS. 



its leafless but juicy and prickly branches are the 

 chief food of the camels of Ala-shan. The Mongols 

 pitch their yurtas beneath the shelter of these trees, 

 which protect them in some degree from the wintry 

 blasts on the bleak steppe ; it is said, too, that you 

 can obtain water sooner by sinking wells in places 

 where the zak grows than elsewhere. 



The range of the zak is very limited in Ala-shan, 

 being only found in the northern part of this country. 

 In the Gobi, however, it grows sporadically on the 

 sand as far as the 42nd parallel N. lat.^ 



The grass sulkir is of even greater importance 

 to the inhabitants of Ala-shan than the zak, and 

 may be called, without exaggeration, the ' gift of the 

 desert.' It attains a height of two (rarely three) feet, 

 growing on the bare sand, generally near the borders 

 of sandy wastes devoid of vegetation. This prickly 

 saline plant blossoms in August, and its small seeds, 

 yielding an agreeable and nutritious food, ripen in the 

 end of September. The crop of sulhir is best after 

 a rainy summer ; in a drought it withers, and then 

 the Mongols of Ala-shan fare badly the whole year 

 round. 



To obtain the seeds of the sulhir the Mongols 

 gather the grass and thrash it on the bare clay, 

 patches of which often occur in the midst of the 



'^ The zak also grows in Ordos and Tsaidam, and is distributed 

 over the whole of Central Asia to Turkestan. 



Mr. Macgahan describes the saxaul of Western Turkestan as ' a 

 low, scraggy, gnarly bush, varying from a foot to six feet high. The 

 wood is very hard and brittle, so that it is more easily broken than cut, 

 and it is so hardy that it flourishes even in the bleakest and most de- 

 solate places.' [Campaigning on the Oxus, p. 45.) — Y. 



