FLORA AND FAUNA OF ALA-SHAN. 235 



sands. The seeds are first roasted over a slow fire, 

 then pounded in a mortar, when they produce a very- 

 palatable flour which is boiled in tea. We tasted 

 the sulhir flour in Ala-shan, and took a supply of it 

 with us for the return journey. The sulhir also 

 serves as excellent food for the domestic animals : 

 horses, camels, and sheep are all very fond of it. This 

 plant also grows in Ordos and the central Gobi 

 on the bare sand, and we found it in Tsaidam. The 

 other kinds of plants in Ala-shan are mostly the 

 same as those we had seen in Ordos. On the 

 clay the budarhana, the kai^myk often forming 

 hillocky mounds, the prickly convolvulus {Convol- 

 vulus tragacanthoides),^ the field wormwood, and an 

 occasional acacia are most common ; among the 

 grasses Intda mnopJiila, Sophora fiavescens, Convol- 

 vulus Ammani, Pegamifn sp., Astragahts sp., and 

 others are met with. But the scanty, crooked, and 

 stunted vegetation of the desert generally leaves an 

 unfavourable impression. There is no energy in 

 the life of this region, the stamp of apathy and 

 decay is upon it ; everything seems to grow un- 

 willingly as if under compulsion, receiving only 

 sufficient nourishment from the poor soil to prevent 

 it from withering altogether. 



The poverty of Ala-shan in flora is equalled by 

 that of its fauna. None of the larger mammals 

 except the kara-siilta inhabit the desert ; wolves, 

 foxes, hares, and hedgehogs {Erinaceus aiiritus ?) are 



' This low and very prickly shrub, which generally grows in clumps, 

 is called by the Mongols, Dzara, i.e. hedgehog. 



