Desert of Hami and the Pe-shan Mountains.—This section occupies the space between the Tian-shan system on the N. and the Nan-shan Mountains on the S., and is connected on the W. with the desert of Lop. The classic account is that of Przhevalsky, who crossed the desert from Hami (or Khami) to Su-chow (not Sa-chow) in the summer of 1879. In the middle this desert rises into a vast swelling, 80 m. across, which reaches an average elevation of 5000 ft. and a maximum elevation of 5500 ft. On its northern and southern borders it is overtopped by two divisions of the Bey-san (= Pe-shan) Mountains, neither of which attains any great relative altitude. Between the northern division and the Karlyk-tagh range or E. Tian-shan intervenes a somewhat undulating barren plain, 3900 ft. in altitude and 40 m. from N. to S., sloping downwards from both N. and S. towards the middle, where lies the oasis of Hami (2800 ft.). Similarly from the southern division of the Bey-san a second plain slopes down for 1000 ft. to the valley of the river Bulunzir or Su-lai-ho, which comes out of China, from the south side of the Great Wall, and finally empties itself into the lake of Kala-chi or Kara-nor. From the Bulunzir the same plain continues southwards at a level of 3700 ft. to the foot of the Nan-shan Mountains. The total breadth of the desert from N. to S. is here 200 m. Its general character is that of an undulating plain, dotted over with occasional elevations of clay, which present the appearance of walls, table-topped mounds and broken towers (jardangs), the surface of the plain being strewn with gravel and absolutely destitute of vegetation. Generally speaking, the Bey-san ranges consist of isolated hills or groups of hills, of low relative elevation (100 to 300 ft.), scattered without any regard to order over the arch of the swelling. They nowhere rise into well-defined peaks. Their axis runs from W.S.W. to E.N.E. But whereas Przhevalsky and Sven Hedin consider them to be a continuation of the Kuruk-tagh, though the latter regards them as separated from the Kuruk-tagh by a well-marked bay of the former Central Asian Mediterranean (Lop-nor), Futterer declares they are a continuation of the Chol-tagh. The swelling or undulating plain between these two ranges of the Bey-san measures about 70 m. across and is traversed by several stretches of high ground having generally an east-west direction.[1] Futterer, who crossed the same desert twenty years after Przhevalsky, agrees generally in his description of it, but supplements the account of the latter explorer with several particulars. He observes that the ranges in this part of the Gobi are much worn down and wasted, like the Kuruk-tagh farther west and the tablelands of S.E. Mongolia farther east, through the effects of century-long insolation, wind erosion, great and sudden changes of temperature, chemical action and occasional water erosion. Vast areas towards the N. consist of expanses of gently sloping (at a mean slope of 3°) clay, intermingled with gravel. He points out also that the greatest accumulations of sand and other products of aerial denudation do not occur in the deepest parts of the depressions but at the outlets of the valleys and glens, and along the foot of the ranges which flank the depressions on the S. Wherever water has been, desert scrub is found, such as tamarisks, Dodartia orientalis, Agriophyllum gobicum, Calligonium sinnex, and Lycium ruthenicum, but all with their roots elevated on little mounds in the same way as the tamarisks grow in the Takla-makan and desert of Lop.
Farther east, towards central Mongolia, the relations, says Futterer, are the same as along the Hami-Su-chow route, except that the ranges have lower and broader crests, and the detached hills are more denuded and more disintegrated. Between the ranges occur broad, flat, cauldron-shaped valleys and basins, almost destitute of life except for a few hares and a few birds, such as the crow and the pheasant, and with scanty vegetation, but no great accumulations of drift-sand. The rocks are severely weathered on the surface, a thick layer of the coarser products of denudation covers the flat parts and climbs a good way up the flanks of the mountain ranges, but all the finer material, sand and clay has been blown away partly S.E. into Ordos, partly into the Chinese provinces of Shen-si and Shan-si, where it is deposited as loess, and partly W., where it chokes all the southern parts of the basin of the Tarim. In these central parts of the Gobi, as indeed in all other parts except the desert of Lop and Ordos, the prevailing winds blow from the W. and N.W. These winds are warm in summer, and it is they which in the desert of Hami bring the fierce sandstorms or burans. The wind does blow also from the N.E., but it is then cold and often brings snow, though it speedily clears the air of the everlasting dust haze. In summer great heat is encountered here on the relatively low (3000-4600 ft.), gravelly expanses (say) on the N. and on those of the S. (4000-5000 ft.); but on the higher swelling between, which in the Pe-shan ranges ascends to 7550 ft., there is great cold even in summer, and a wide daily range of temperature. Above the broad and deep accumulations of the products of denudation which have been brought down by the rivers from the Tian-shan ranges (e.g. the Karlyk-tagh) on the N. and from the Nan-shan on the S., and have filled up the cauldron-shaped valleys, there rises a broad swelling, built up of granitic rocks, crystalline schists and metamorphosed sedimentary rocks of both Archaic and Palaeozoic age, all greatly folded and tilted up, and shot through with numerous irruptions of volcanic rocks, predominantly porphyritic and dioritic. On this swelling rise four more or less parallel mountain ranges of the Pe-shan system, together with a fifth chain of hills farther S., all having a strike from W.N.W. to E.N.E. The range farthest N. rises to 1000 ft. above the desert and 7550 ft. above sea-level, the next two ranges reach 1300 ft. above the general level of the desert, and the range farthest south 1475 ft. or an absolute altitude of 7200 ft., while the fifth chain of hills does not exceed 650 ft. in relative elevation. All these ranges decrease in altitude from W. to E. In the depressions which border the Pe-shan swelling on N. and S. are found the sedimentary deposits of the Tertiary sea of the Han-hai; but no traces of those deposits have been found on the swelling itself at altitudes of 5600 to 5700 ft. Hence, Futterer infers, in recent geological times no large sea has occupied the central part of the Gobi. Beyond an occasional visit from a band of nomad Mongols, this region of the Pe-shan swelling is entirely uninhabited.[2] And yet it was from this very region, avers G. E. Grum-Grzhimailo, that the Yue-chi, a nomad race akin to the Tibetans, proceeded when, towards the middle of the 2nd century B.C., they moved westwards and settled near Lake Issyk-kul; and from here proceeded also the Shanshani, or people who some two thousand years ago founded the state of Shanshan or Loû-lan, ruins of the chief town of which Sven Hedin discovered in the desert of Lop in 1901. Here, says the Russian explorer, the Huns gathered strength, as also did the Tukiu (Turks) in the 6th century, and the Uighur tribes and the rulers of the Tangut kingdom. But after Jenghiz Khan in the 12th century drew away the peoples of this region, and no others came to take their place, the country went out of cultivation and eventually became the barren desert it now is.[3]
Ala-shan.—This division of the great desert, known also as the Hsi-tau and the Little Gobi, fills the space between the great N. loop of the Hwang-ho or Yellow river on the E., the Edzin-gol on the W., and the Nan-shan Mountains on the S.W., where it is separated from the Chinese province of Kan-suh by the narrow rocky chain of Lung-shan (Ala-shan), 10,500 to 11,600 ft. in altitude. It belongs to the middle basin of the three great depressions into which Potanin divides the Gobi as a whole. “Topographically,” says Przhevalsky, “it is a perfectly level plain, which in all probability once formed the bed of a huge lake or inland sea.” The data upon which he bases this conclusion are the level area of the region as a whole, the hard saline clay and the sand-strewn surface, and lastly the salt lakes which occupy its lowest parts. For hundreds of miles there is nothing to be seen but bare sands; in some places they continue so far without a break that the Mongols call them Tyngheri (i.e. sky). These vast expanses are absolutely waterless, nor do any oases relieve the unbroken stretches of yellow sand which alternate with equally vast areas of saline clay or, nearer the foot of the mountains, with barren shingle. Although on the whole a level country with a general altitude of 3300 to 5000 ft., this section, like most other parts of the Gobi, is crowned by a chequered network of hills and broken ranges going up 1000 ft. higher. The vegetation is confined to a few varieties of bushes and a dozen kinds of grasses, the most conspicuous being saxaul and Agriophyllum gobicum[4] (a grass). The others include prickly convolvulus, field wormwood, acacia, Inula ammophila, Sophora flavescens, Convolvulus Ammani, Peganum and Astragalus, but all dwarfed, deformed and starved. The fauna consists of little else except antelopes, the wolf, fox, hare, hedgehog, marten, numerous lizards and a few birds, e.g. the sand-grouse, lark, stonechat, sparrow, crane, Podoces Hendersoni, Otocorys albigula and Galerita cristata.[5] The only human inhabitants of Ala-shan are the Torgod Mongols.
Ordos.—East of the desert of Ala-shan, and only separated from it by the Hwang-ho, is the desert of Ordos or Ho-tau, “a level steppe, partly bordered by low hills. The soil is altogether sandy or a mixture of clay and sand, ill adapted for agriculture. The absolute height of this country is between 3000 and 3500 ft., so that Ordos forms an intermediate step in the descent to China from the Gobi, separated from the latter by the mountain ranges lying on the N. and E. of the Hwang-ho or Yellow river.”[6] Towards the south Ordos rises to an altitude of over 5000 ft., and in the W., along the right bank of the Hwang-ho, the Arbus or Arbiso Mountains, which overtop the steppe by some 3000 ft., serve to link the Ala-shan Mountains with the In-shan. The northern part of the great loop of the river is filled with the sands of Kuzupchi, a succession of dunes, 40 to 50 ft. high. Amongst them in scattered patches grow the shrub Hedysarum and the trees Calligonium Tragopyrum and Pugionium cornutum. In some places these sand-dunes approach close to the great river, in others they are parted from it by a belt of sand, intermingled with clay, which terminates in a steep escarpment, 50 ft. and in some localities 100 ft. above the river. This belt is studded with little mounds (7 to 10 ft. high), mostly overgrown with wormwood (Artemisia campestris) and the Siberian pea-tree (Caragana); and here too grows one of the most characteristic plants of Ordos, the liquorice root (Glycyrrhiza uralensis). Eventually
- ↑ Przhevalsky, Iz Zayana cherez Hami v Tibet na Vershovya Shaltoy Reki, pp. 84-91.
- ↑ Futterer, Durch Asien, i. pp. 206-211.
- ↑ G. E. Grum-Grzhimailo, Opisanie Puteshestviya v Sapadniy Kitai, ii. p. 127.
- ↑ Its seeds are pounded by the Mongols to flour and mixed with their tea.
- ↑ Przhevalsky, Mongolia (Eng. trans. ed. by Sir H. Yule).
- ↑ Przhevalsky, op. cit. p. 183.
