THE DESERT OF GOBI AND THE HIMALAYAS. 113 



ing far away in the distance there was a great, rolling, grassy plain, 

 on which the flocks and herds and the yurtas, or felt tents, of the 

 Mongols were scattered abont. These people offered a striking 

 contrast to the Chinese inhabiting the districts I had just left. 

 They were strong and robust, with round, ruddy faces, very simple- 

 minded, and full of hearty good humor. They are entirely pas- 

 toral and nomadic in their habits, and do not take to agricultural 

 pursuits. The old warlike spirit which made them so powerful in 

 the days of Genghis Khan has now disappeared completely. The 

 Chinese Government has purposely encouraged the men to become 

 Lamas, and now it is said that as many as sixty per cent of the 

 whole male population are Lamas, who, by their religion, are neither 

 allowed to marry nor to fight. In consequence, there is a great 

 decrease in the fighting strength of the Mongols, as well as in the 

 whole population. A recent famine carried away numbers more, 

 and the country, it seems, would almost become depopulated were 

 it not that Chinese immigrants are now invading it, and these are 

 even outdoing the Mongols in their own callings, for I met Chinese 

 in Mongolia who owned flocks of sheep which they were fattening 

 for the Peking market." 



In order to avoid the heat of the day, and to let the camels feed 

 by daylight, when they could be watched and kept from straying, 

 the usual plan of the journey was to start at about three o'clock 

 in the afternoon, and travel on till midnight or later. The nights 

 were often extremely beautiful, and the stars shone out with an 

 unwonted magnificence. "Venus was a resplendent object, and 

 guided us over many a mile of that desert. The Milky Way, too, 

 was so bright that it looked like a bright phosphorescent cloud, 

 or as a cloud with the moon behind it. This clearness of the 

 atmosphere was probably due to its being so remarkably dry. 

 Everything became parched up and so charged with electricity 

 that in opening out a sheep-skin coat or a blanket a loud crackling 

 noise would be given out, accompanied by a sheet of fire. The 

 temperature used to vary considerably. Frosts continued to the 

 end of May, but the days were often very hot, and were frequently 

 hottest at nine or ten in the morning, for later on a strong wind 

 would usually spring up, blowing sometimes with extreme vio- 

 lence, up till sunset, when it generally subsided again. If this 

 wind was from the north, the weather was fine but cold. If it 

 was from the south, it would be warmer, but clouds would collect, 

 and rain would sometimes fall ; generally, however, the rain would 

 pass off into steam before reaching the ground. Ahead of us we 

 could see the rain falling heavily, but before it reached the ground 

 it would gradually disappear — vanish away — and when we reached 

 the spot over which the rain had been falling there would not be 

 a sign of moisture on the ground." Instead of the rain, the sand 



VOL. XXXV. — 8 



