MOUNTAINS OF ALA-SHAN. 



257 



as we have said, about ten miles from the town 

 of Din-yuan-ing, and form the boundary between 

 Ala-shan and the province of Kan-su. The whole 

 range is known under the name of Ala-shan. It 

 rises from the very shore of the Hoang-ho, opposite 

 to where the Arbus-ula mountains in Ordos abut 

 on the river, i.e. about fifty-five miles south of the 

 town of Ding-hu. From this point the range 

 we are describing extends, from north to south, 

 along the left bank of the River, from which it 

 gradually diverges. The total length of the whole 

 range, according to the Mongols, is about 150 miles, 

 but its width is very inconsiderable, and about the 

 centre does not exceed seventeen miles. These 

 mountains, however, rise abruptly from the valley, 

 and are wild and alpine in character, especially on 

 their eastern slopes, which are girt with enormous 

 perpendicular cliffs, 700 to 800 feet in height, and 

 seamed with deep valleys, in fact are marked with 

 all the features of wild alpine scenery. No solitary 

 peaks tower above the chief axis of the rano-e the 

 highest points of which are Bayan Tsiimdin- and 

 Biigutiii, about its centre. The former of these 

 mountains is 10,600 feet high, the latter about 1,000 

 feet higher. But between these two mountains the 

 range subsides sufficiently to allow of a pass, the 

 only one across it, by which the road leads to the 

 large Chinese town of Ning-hia-fu. 



Notwithstanding their height, the mountains of 

 Ala-shan nowhere attain the limit of perpetual snow.^ 



^ In September, when we saw the Ala-shan mountains for the first 

 VOL. I. S 



