18(5 NOTES ON KANSU 



in a general kind of a way, with the irrigated plain and 

 orchards, and desert to the north, and hills to the south in 

 each case. Some day if a strong government will set itself 

 in earnest to the irrigation of this area and conservation of 

 the waters that are so largely lost, this tract may support a 

 much larger population and be greatly widened in area at 

 the expense of the desert. Many of these cities have good 

 coal supplies, and the hills to the south are known also to 

 contain gold, tin, copper affid iron. In one of these hills I 

 came across a volcano — as I suppose — at least the "crater" 

 has been smoking for some 600 years. The fumes given out 

 are very sulphurous, and the local people use them to make 

 alum by the conversion into that substance of some stone 

 they dig from the hills near by. It does not seem to be 

 widely known that there is more than one smouldering 

 volcano in that part of Kansuh bordering on the desert. 



One original method of obtaining salt used not far away 

 from there is to pour the brine (taken from wells) upon the 

 soil, and let it dry. Then the soil is removed and packed 

 into large filters, more brine poured on, and the filtrate 

 subsequently boiled dry. In this way it is said that three 

 times as much salt is obtained as by boiling the brine in the 

 ordinary way. I do not know the explanation. 



Historically this northern tract belongs to the Tarigut 

 Kingdom which had its capital at Ningsia. Repeated en- 

 quiries in that district, however, elicited little information as 

 to the former Si-hsia Kingdom. The ground is so alkaline 

 that old monuments are few in the city or near it. But we 

 heard that in the hills 60 li to the west there was, or used to 

 be, a monument in that strange writing. Probably search 

 among these hills that run north as a spur from the main 

 East to West range, would be productive of interesting- 

 results. The scene of some old Chinese plays is laid in the 

 same range and there are interesting temples and tombs of 

 an early age. 



Let us now cross the mountains and enter the central 

 tract of Kansuh — the Yellow River system, with its shapely 

 loess hills, and alluvial plains and here and there the great 

 rock mountains that are hid from the traveller usually, as he 

 wanders along in the dusty loess cuttings of the hillsides. 

 This is the most characteristic part of all Kansuh, and here 

 both the most beautiful and least beautiful of scenery is to 

 be found; on the one hand, enchanting mountains, abundant 

 verdure, singing birds, and flowers everywhere ; on the other, 

 bare dusty breathless hillsides brown in winter, and only 

 beautiful by the yellow wheat and pink buckwheat and brown 

 millet of autumn, or, the universal green of Spring. Here 



