TEMPLE ON ISLAND. LEGEND. 141 



about six or seven miles in compass, on which stands 

 a small temple inhabited by ten lamas, who have no 

 means of communication with the main land during 

 summer, for there is no boat on the lake, and none of 

 the inhabitants understand the use of one. In winter 

 pilgrims cross over the ice, and bring presents of 

 butter and barley-meal to the hermits, who at this 

 season come out of their cells to collect alms. 



Koko-nor abounds- in fish, but you find only a 

 score or two of Mongol fishermen on its shores, and 

 these send all that they catch to the town of Tonkin 

 Their nets are small, and the fishing is chiefly car- 

 ried on at the mouths of the streams which flow into 

 the lake. The only kind of fish that we saw was 

 the Schizopygopsis nov. sp., Avhich we captured 

 ourselves ; we heard that though there were many 

 other species, owing to the badness of the nets they 

 were rarely caught. 



The local tradition ^ of the orio-in of Koko-nor 



о 



represents it to have once been an underground lake 

 in Tibet, in the place where Lhassa now stands, and 

 to have been transferred to its present site before 

 the memory of man. The story runs thus : — 



In olden days, before the present residence of 

 the Dalai-Lama was built, one of the sovereigns of 

 Tibet bethought him of erecting a splendid shrine in 

 honour of Buddha, and so having selected a site he 

 begfan to build. Thousands of workmen were em- 



о 



' This legend is related by Hue {Soitvoiirs d^un Voyage, &.C., vol. ii. 

 p. 189-194). The only new point that I have been able to add is the 

 story of the origin of the island. 



