IBANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 619 



It is not the purpose of this address to describe the policy of the Mongols or the 

 institutions which they founded in conquered countries. A few salient points only 

 have been indicated in reference to the geography of our plateau. It is here, near 

 what is now known as the upper region of the Amur, that the Onon, the Orkhou, 

 and the Kerulen, classic streams in Mongol story, take their source. Here is the 

 site of Kara Koron, the emperor's head-quarter encampment. Here the Kurultai 

 assemblies were held to decide the fate of nationalities. Here were the camps, the 

 Urta, and Urdus, rude names at first unpronounceable in the civilised world, but 

 soon to become terribly familiar. Here were the hordes mustered under their 

 banners, each standard having its distinctive colour, the supreme ensign being, 

 however, the yak's tail raised aloft. Hither, also, the corpse of Chinghiz Khan was 

 borne in a cumbrous catafalque, dragged through the deep loam by oxeii \oked 

 twenty abreast, while his henchmen chanted a dirge which was a pathetic eti'usion 

 from the heart of a valiant nation, and was full of poetic images drawn i'rom the 

 Mongolian surroundings. 



In the sixtli place, though our plateau has possessed, and still possesses, some 

 patches of fine cultivation, such as those in the Upper Tarim basin, near Yarkand 

 and Kashgar, and some near Lhassa in Tibet, still it has comparatively but little of 

 agriculture, of trade, or of industry. Nevertheless it has many natural resources of 

 value and interest, while its pastoral resources have proved astonishing. Its breed 

 of horses, though by no means the finest, has yet been quite the largest ever 

 known. These horses have never displayed the beauty of the Arabian or the 

 size of the Turkomau breed. They are middle-sized, and do not attain the 

 speed of thorouglibreds. liut in nimbleness amidst rugged ground, in endurance 

 over lengthened distances, and in preserving their condition with scanty nourish- 

 ment, they are unrivalled. 1'heir numbers too may well exercise the imagina- 

 tion of modern breeders. For many years the Tartar emperors maintained in the 

 held at least 600,000 cavalry, for which the horses were drawn chiefly from our 

 plateau. This enormous cavahy force was engaged in fighting over au area of 

 many thousand miles in length and breadth, during which operations much desperate 

 resistance was encountered. It was occupied in steep ascents and descents, in 

 traversing deserts, in crossing frozen lakes, in swimming rapid rivers. How vastlj' 

 numerous theu must have been the casualties among the horses, and how immense 

 the breeding studs. The pasturage too was so potent in nutritive qualities that 

 ordinarily there was risk of animals suffering from repletion, and emaciated crea- 

 tures rapidly gained flesh and strength. 



In other respects too tbe fauna is noteworthy — the sheep and goats, with wool 

 or down of the softest texture — the buffalo herds and the yaks inured to the 

 sharpest cold — the gazelles careering in thousands — the untameahle camel of the 

 desert having a speed and agility unknown in other species — the wild asses and the 

 white wolves — the waterfowl at times like clouds darkening the air. 



The flora too, though less abundant, has its specialities — the pointed grasses 

 sharp enough to pierce leather, the gigantic rhubarb, the magnificent holly, the 

 branching juniper. 



The mineral resources of the Kuen-lun are certainly enormous ; nobody yet 

 knows how great they may prove. Indeed our plateau is remarkable for its 

 antimony, its sidplmr, its saltpetre, its borax, its gold-washings, its turquoise, 

 and its classic jadestone. 



In tlie seventh place, the field offered by our plateau for scientific research will 

 be apparent from even a cursory consideration of the stage to which our knowledge 

 has reached. From the second of the two diagrams, which shows in deep pink 

 those portions of Asia that have been professionally surveyed, in light pink those 

 that have been roughly surveyed, in lighter pink "those that have been explored 

 only, and in white those that are unexplored — it will be seen that almost the 

 whole of our plateau is unsurveyed, and that while much of it has been explored 

 more or less, some portions yet await exploration. For some time, however, it has 

 been tbe sphere chosen by many among the most skilful, enduring, and intrepid 

 travellers of Europe. The journeys of the Russian Prejevalsky in the Tarim basin 

 and Mongolia, of Potanin and RafailofF in the same region, of Malussovski near 



