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78
BAST ASIA.
shown by the water-marks on the cliffs at a great distance from its present shores.
Its numerous feeders from the west, of which the Bukhain-gol is the largest, do
not suffice to compensate for the evaporation, and, as there is no outlet, its waters
have become saline. Towards the east is an island 6 miles in circumference,
which, according to the legend, closes up the abyss whence sprang the waters of
the lake. It was dropped by a gigantic bird from the skies on the spot,
in order
to stop the flow, which was threatening to submerge the world. A convent with
about a dozen lamas stands on this solitary island, completely cut off from the
mainland during the summer, when no craft dares to venture on the stormy lake.
But during the four winter months the monks cross the ice and renew their stock
of flour and butter. The lake, which is said to abound in many species of fish,
stands 10,600 feet above the sea, and is fringed by dense thickets of shrubs.
THE CHAIDAM BASIN.
Several other smaller lakes are scattered over the plateau west of the Upper
Hoang-ho, but the largest of all the inland seas in this region has long disappeared.
The valley of the Chaidam (Tsaidam) was formerly the bed of this vast reservoir,
which filled the triangular space bounded on the north by the Nan-shan, east by
the Kuku-nor highlands, south by the Burkhan-Buddha range. It is traversed
south-east and north-west by the large river Bayan-gol, or Chaidam, which is
perhaps 250 to 300 miles long, and 480 yards wide at the point crossed by
Prjevalsky. But as it approaches the desert its volume gradually diminishes,
until it disappears at last in the Dabsun-nor swamps, near the gap through which
the Chaidam Lake was
formerly
united with the Lob-nor. its Throughout eastern
section the Chaidam is
plain covered with saline marshes, while in the north-west
nothing is seen except argillaceous or stony tracts. The is vegetation limited to
the reeds of the swamps, a scanty herbage and thickets of the Nitraria Scholeri
growing to a height of 7 feet, with berries at once sweet and bitter, eagerly devoured
both by man and beast. They are gathered in the autumn, and mixed by the
natives with their barley-meal.
The fauna of Chaidam is as poor as its flora, which is probably due to the
swarms of mosquitoes infesting the marshy tracts, and driving the flocks and wild
beasts to the surrounding uplands. The animals most frequently met on the plain
are a species of antelope, the wolf, fox, hare, and, according to the Mongolians, the
wild camel in the western solitudes. Although visited only by the hunter and
nomad pastor, the country is not unsuitable for a settled population, being well
watered by the Bayan-gol, and enjoying a comparatively mild climate, especially
towards its western extremity, where it falls to little over 3,000 feet above sea-level.
The ruins of an ancient city at the confluence of the Bayan-gol with another
stream in the centre of the plain are still silent witnesses of the great changes
that have taken place in a region once perhaps thickly peopled, now occupied only
by a few nomad tents.
The upland steppe of Oduntala, north of which runs the
water-parting between