NOTES AND QUERIES. 103 
Tsaidam is an immense flat land, formerly the bottom of a lake, covered 
with brushwood at the foot of the mountains, and with salt clay elsewhere. 
A narrow salt lake, Dobasun-nor, extending west to east, receives the rivers 
Bayan-gol, Naidmin-gol, and Umu-muren. Pheasants are numerous in 
the brush and the small marshes covered with rush. Other birds, even 
migratory, are scarce, as also mammals, which avoid a ground impregnated 
with salt. Only Bears coming from Thibet are numerous when the fruits 
of the khormyk-brush are ripe. Further north and north-west, as far as the 
Altyn-tagh Mountains, extends an immense dry desert, the soil of which 
consists of clay, sand, and gravel. Several of its parts man never visits, 
and only wild Camels wander on its barren surface. Col. Prjevalsky met 
with only two places having plenty of fresh water and grazing grounds,—at 
Hansy and at Has, where a lake of the same name has a circumference of 
nearly thirty miles. Leaving at Has some provisions under the guard of 
seven Cossacks, the remainder of the party went west to explore the valley 
nearly 150 miles long between the Altyn-tagh, in the north, and the Kuen- 
lun, in the south ; the valley slowly rises from 9000 ft. at Has to 14,000 ft. 
at the junction of both chains of mountains. An easy passage across the 
Altyn-tagh leads them to Cherchen, and must have been utilised formerly 
on the route from Khotan to China, while another route led, via Lob-nor, 
to the Sa-cheu oasis. The excursions of the party around Has took fifty- 
four days, during which a region absolutely unknown before was explored. 
It has a very poor flora and fauna; of mammals only a hundred Antelopes 
were shot, and a new species of Ovis has been discovered. Col. Prjevalsky 
gave it the name of Ovis dalailame. The climate of the region is very 
severe. In December the temperature was seen to fall during the night 
below 40° Cels. Day and night strong westerly winds were blowing, often 
taking the force of a gale, which filled the atmosphere with sand and dust. 
Returning in January to the station of Has, Col. Prjevalsky resumed his 
journey to Lob-nor, 170 miles distant, where he was well received by his 
former acquaintances. There he proposed to stay throughout February to 
study the migrations of birds. 
MAMMALIA. 
Wolves in France.—Notwithstanding the active pursuit aud the high 
premiums paid, the efforts to extirpate Wolves in France have not yet 
been successful. Wolves are still numerous in the forests with dense 
undergrowth, especially those of the Ardennes and Vosges. The latest 
Statistics published by the French Ministry of Agriculture prove this. 
According to this source there were paid, in 1888, in premiums 103,720 fr. 
for the slaying of 1308 Wolves (9 full-grown male and 82 female, 774 half- 
grown, and 493 young Wolves). The premium paid for a full-grown Wolf 
is 200 fr, ; fora she Wolf, 150 fr. ; for an animal not yet fully grown, 100 fr. ; 
