68 VALLEY OF RANGTA-GOL. 



halt was very agreeable, enabling us to make ex- 

 cursions into the mountains, and to study their flora 

 and fauna. The profusion of both one and the other 

 made me decide on returning to this spot, and de- 

 voting the whole summer to the special study of the 

 mountains round Chertinton. 



We were told positively that our baggage ani- 

 mals could not pass the range on the right (southern) 

 bank of the Tatung ;^ accordingly we left camels and 

 horses, and hired Chinese to carry the baggage on 

 mules and asses to Chobsen. 



On July I, we ascended one of the tributaries of 

 the Tatung, the Rangta-gol, by a narrow path leading 

 through a defile in which we saw the black tents and 

 wooden huts of the Tangutans. The hills are well 

 wooded up to their higher zones, which are covered 

 with underwood. Enormous rocks rise on all sides 

 and shut in the lateral defiles. The ascent was very 

 steep, almost precipitous, and the beasts could hardly 

 keep their footing. The view from the summit, 

 however, is splendid, overlooking a wide uneven 

 plain, which presented a remarkable appearance as 

 we saw it, swathed in fleecy clouds with a bright sun 

 and clear sky overhead. 



The descent on the opposite side is short but 

 abrupt,^ leading to an extensive hilly region, on 

 the outskirts of which is the town of Si-ning, at the 

 foot of lofty snow-clad mountains. This is a well- 



* This information afterwards proved incorrect ; pack-camels may 

 cross the mountains, although with considerable difficulty. 



- The ascent from the Tatung by the valley of the Rangta is 

 twenty-three miles long, the descent on the south only six miles. 



