TIBET. 
303 
They are fed without distinction, wherever sufficient pasture is to 
be found, but principally upon the short herbage, peculiar to the sides 
of eminences, and bleak, exposed plains. They are occasionally em¬ 
ployed as beasts of burden; and I have seen numerous flocks of them 
in motion, laden with salt and grain, each carrying from twelve to 
twenty pounds. They are the bearers of their own coats, to the best 
market, where it is usually fabricated into a narrow cloth resembling 
frieze, or a thick coarse blanket. When slaughtered, their skins are 
most commonly cured with the wool on, and form a most excellent 
winter garment for the peasant, and the traveller. 
The skins of lambs are cured also with the wool on, and constitute 
a valuable article of traffic. In order to obtain the skin in its highest 
state of excellency, the dam is sometimes killed before her time of 
yeaning; a cruel precaution, which secures, however, a silky softness 
to the fleece, and stamps a very high price upon it, in this region, 
where the merit of good furs is well ascertained. It serves parti¬ 
cularly for lining vests, and is in equal estimation all over Tartary; 
it bears a very high price also in China. But powerful as the temp¬ 
tation is, I conclude from this circumstance, that the practice is not 
very frequently adopted. 
The dryness of the atmosphere at this season, in Tibet, I thought, 
very remarkable; it had an effect resembling that of the scorching 
winds which prevail, and blow over the sandy soil of Hindostan, or 
along the shores of Coromandel. Vegetation is dried to brittleness, 
and every plant may be rubbed between the fingers into dust. 
Hence, the inhabitants have been compelled io adopt the precaution 
