144 SEQUEL OF STORY. ANIMALS. 



to continue his journey, exclaimed, ' God's will be 

 done ! All is over ! We are lost ! ' Sure enough 

 that night a fearful subterranean noise was heard ; 

 the earth opened ; and streams of water pouring 

 forth from below soon flooded the wide plain. Much 

 cattle and many souls perished, the old man among 

 the rest. At length God took pity on sinful mortals 

 and sent a wonderful bird, which flew away with a 

 huge rock from the Nan-shan mountains, and depo- 

 sited it in the fissure whence the waters were pouring 

 forth. The flood was now stopped ; but the plain 

 had been already converted into a lake, and the 

 safety-bringing rock became the island which you 

 see to this day. 



The lake is closely hemmed in by mountains on 

 its northern and southern shores, while on the east 

 and west the mountains are at some distance. The 

 narrow strip of level ground between the lake and 

 the mountains is excellent steppe-land, resembling 

 the best parts of the Gobi, only more plentifully 

 watered. The contrast between the climate, flora, 

 and fauna here and those of Kan-su is very re- 

 markable. Instead of the unceasing rain, snow, and 

 moisture which we had lately experienced, we now 

 had fine autumnal weather which continued every 

 day. But instead of alpine meadows, forests, and a 

 damp loamy soil, we were now in the midst of plains 

 of saline clay, covered with steppe-grass and tall 

 dirisun, where those ever-recurring denizens of the 

 steppe, the dzeren and ogotono (alpine hare), larks, 

 and sand-grouse were to be seen. Here too were 



