520 THE KARLIK TAGH 



Bogdo ; failing this, the traveller must needs go north- 

 wards to the eastern Altai ranges, where he might fall 

 in with Mongol wanderers who would perchance be able 

 to supply transport and guides. A few Khalka — or, as 

 they called themselves, Mingyn Mongols — who had come 

 down to Shopoli to trade skins, knew nothing of those 

 regions, yet the Ati Bogdo is certain to be in com- 

 munication with Northern Mongolia, although its in- 

 habitants are Torguts, — summer visitors from the Edsin 

 Gol or Gashiun Nor, in the very heart of the Gobi. The 

 Ati Bogdo had so far been approached from the north 

 alone, this being the reason why we wished to attack 

 it from the west. 



Although a visit would have been of great help to 

 us in our work of deciding the distribution of life- 

 zones,^ and in tracing the lines of demarcation between 

 the fauna of the Tian Shan and Altai, yet the topography 

 of the intervening region was made clear to us with- 

 out the labour of a desert journey. A climb to the 

 summit of the pass that led to Tal showed us the 

 eastern desert-spurs of Karlik Tagh and the configura- 

 tion of the region between them and the Ati Bogdo. 

 A day's journey away to the east rose into sight 

 the red sandstone pyramid of Emir Tagh, which sloped 

 desertwards in a long-backed ridge until lost to view. 

 There seemed to be no connecting range between the 

 Karlik Tagh and the Ati Bogdo, but rather a genuine 

 break consisting of hard steppe and stray sand-dunes. 

 Occasional isolated hills cropped up, such as the Jingis 

 and Atis peaks, but looking eastwards there was no 

 suggestion of the pleasant highlands where, — according 

 to Kozloff, the only visitor, — there are meadows, forests, 



* See Appendix, Life-zones of Inner Asia. 



