374 



EUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



Yelton, the Altan-Nor, or " Gold Lake," of the Kalmuks, so named, doubtless, 

 from its dazzling glitter in the rays of the sun. It lies in a desolate region, 

 where the brown or yellow clays are relieved not by patches of verdure, but by 

 lines of white salt disposed in cones like the tents of an army, or by the wretched 

 hovels of the labourers, and the lumbering waggons, with their teams of oxen, 



Fig. 199.— Steppes North of the Caspian. 

 Scale 1 : 4,120,000. 



Clays. 



Sands. 



K3 



Sandy 

 Soil. 



Grev 

 Earlh. 



Silt 

 Tracts. 



6) r.Iilcs 



Salt 

 Maislus. 



Shifting 



Sands. 



.slowly moving towards the Volga. The lake, with its violet-red waters, covers an 

 area of several square miles, but with a uniform depth of scarcely 12 inches, 

 60 that the entire mass becomes displaced whenever the wind sets strongly from 

 any given quarter. Its bed consists exclusively of extremely hard saline layers, 

 which have not yet been pierced to any great depth, the workmen confining 



