158 THE POUHAIN-GOL. 



Mongols told US, rises in the Nan-shan mountains and 

 flows 260 miles before discharging its waters. In its 

 lower course, i.e. where the Tibetan road crosses it, 

 its width is about 100 feet, and it is fordable almost 

 everywhere ; the depth not exceeding two feet. The 

 Pouhain-gol is thus a river of very moderate calibre, 

 and the description given by the Abbe Hue of the 

 terrible passage of the Tibetan caravan which he 

 accompanied to Lhassa, across twelve of its channels, 

 appeared to us, as we read it on the very spot, mar- 

 vellously overdrawn. The worthy father remarks 

 that his companions considered it very fortunate that 

 only one man broke a leg, and two yaks perished. 

 Now, the river has here only one channel, which is 

 flooded, only in the rainy season, and might suffice 

 to drown a hare possibly, but certainly never so 

 powerful a swimmer as the yak. In the following 

 March we lived a whole month on the Lower Pou- 

 hain-gol, and forded it dozens of times on every 

 shooting excursion, often calling to mind as we did 

 so Hue's description.^ The valley of this river is 

 from eight to ten miles wide ; on the opposite side 

 rises a lofty range which, as the natives told us, ex- 

 tends along the southern shore of Koko-nor,^ and 

 continues for about y^o miles to the west. I shall 

 call it the Southern Koko-nor range, to distinguish it 



• Compare Hue's account (vol. ii. p. 199). The river was covered 

 with ice, not strong enough, however to bear the weight of the caravan 

 animals, a circumstance which, combined with the darkness of night, 

 must have occasioned difficulties in the passage, and partly caused 

 the accidents which befell his party. Hue's passage was apparently 

 made in the first week of November.— M. 



"^ It is curious that Hue docs not mention this great range. — M. 



