462 SOUTHERN DZUNGARIA 



and very malformed ; the moving sands were heaped 

 up to a greater height, — I estimate the highest dunes 

 at 100 ft. from crest to hollow, — these keeping their 

 ranks and preserving their form with the monotonous 

 precision peculiar to wind-blown sands. 



Other information we acquired through this visit 

 to the Kirei related to the first spurs of the Altai Moun- 

 tains, which gave us some conception of the nature 

 of the gap of a hundred miles which separates these 

 mountain-systems, namely, the Altai and the Tian Shan, 

 as represented by the Baitik and Bogdo-ola ranges. 

 From our encampment, on a clear morning, we could just 

 discern the snows of the Baitik Mountains, an outlying 

 range belonging to the Altai group. This range, accord- 

 ing to the information given by the nomads who call it 

 their home, is an isolated mass, not actually reaching to 

 a summer snow-line, but sufficiently high to afford good 

 grazing ; water is found in small springs, rising in the 

 valleys, and flowing a short distance before drying up ; 

 the forests on the northern flanks consist of poplar 

 and alder in the valley bottoms, and larch on the 

 heights above. Taken altogether the description of the 

 home of these Kirei seemed most in\dting, and did not in 

 any way tally with the manner in which it was depicted 

 on the maps, as, lacking in names, in waterings, and in 

 everything that suggested an inhabited area. 



The water-supply, the Kirei told us, is ample for 

 the nomads who live there during the dry est months, and 

 is even sufficient to support a small population of 

 Torgut-Kalm.uk residents, who never move as the Kirei 

 do. The Torguts live a semi-nomadic existence, growing 

 a httle barley, and grazing their flocks, but still occupy- 

 ing yurts in preference to houses ; they are sufficiently 



