272 THE G Л LP IN GOBI. 



mountains, afterwards taking the direction of the 

 Khalka country. We did not follow this road be- 

 cause the wells along" it were not sufficiently numer- 

 ous, and had been neglected since the outbreak of 

 the rebellion.^ 



Our course lay due north, ^ and after crossing 

 some spurs of the Kara-narin-ula entered the country 

 of the Urutes, which lies wedge-shaped between 

 Ala-shan and the Khalka country. 



This country is considerably higher than Ala- 

 shan, but soon begins to sink towards the Galpin 

 Gobi plain, where the elevation is only 3,200 feet; 

 north of this again it rises towards the Hurku moun- 

 tains which form a distinct definition between the 

 barren desert on the south and the more steppe-like 

 region on the north. There is also a slope from the 

 ranges bordering the valley of the Hoang-ho west- 

 ward to the Galpin Gobi, which forms a depressed 

 basin, no higher than Djaratai-dabas, extending, as 

 we were informed by the Mongols, for twenty-five 

 days' march from east to west. 



The soil of the Galpin Gobi, in that eastern por- 

 tion of it which we crossed, consists of small pebbles 

 or of saline clay almost devoid of vegetation ; the 

 whole expanse of country to the Hurku range being 



' The Urga caravan, which started in the summer of 1873 for 

 Lhassa to find the Kutukhtu, crossed the Gobi in small dchelons and 

 by different routes. People were sent in advance along the high road, 

 to clear out old and dig new wells ; notwithstanding which there was 

 a scarcity of water. 



"^ There is no road here, and you may sometimes go seventy miles 

 without seeiniT a track. 



