COUNTRY SOUTH OF KOKO-NOR. 159 



from the Northern or Kan-su mountains, with which 

 it probably unites at its western extremity. 



Just as these latter mountains divide its basin 

 from the moist, hilly, wooded region of Kan-su, so 

 does the southern range define the boundary between 

 the fertile steppes surrounding the lake and the 

 deserts of Tsaidam and Tibet. The northern slopes 

 of this range have many points of resemblance to 

 the Kan-su mountains, and are for the most part 

 covered with shrubs and small underwood, while on 

 the other side their character is completely Mon- 

 golian. Here the clay soil is in many parts quite 

 bare, or dotted only with an occasional tree-j uniper ; 

 the watercourses are dry ; and no sign of rich grass- 

 land is visible. Here also the traveller must prepare 

 to enter the desert, which lies on the south, and may 

 be compared in sterility with the plains of Ala-shan. 

 Nothing grows on its saline clay soil but such grasses 

 as the diristm, with budarhana, and karmyk ; its 

 animals, the kara-S2dta and kolo-djoi^, are such as 

 only inhabit the wildest deserts. Here lies the salt 

 basin of Djaratai-dabas, about twenty-six miles in 

 circumference, presenting a layer of excellent salt, a 

 foot thick in the middle, diminishing to an inch round 

 the edges. The salt is transported hence to Tonkir, 

 its excavation being superintended by a resident 

 Mongol official.^ 



The plain in which this basin lies is twenty miles 



Mt is worthy of notice that the salt is paid for on the spot at the 

 rate of two packets (j lb.) of guamian (a kind of vermicelli prepared 

 from dough) for each camel-load ; however, at Koko-nor butter also 

 passes as currency. 



