Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 59 (Color Image)

0059	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. ii.] SWARMS OF WATER-FOWL.

sional hut inhabited by Mongols, and entered

on a quite new phase of our journey. Scarcely

a tree was to be seen, and for mile after mile

we passed over rolling downs covered with rich

grass and exquisite flowers.* In the hollows

were often lakes of considerable size, some of

them several miles in length. And these were

covered with swarms of water-fowl--thousands

and thousands of duck and geese. Indeed,

these lakes must have been the breeding-ground

of the water-fowl, which, in the cold weather,

find their way down to the warmer parts of the

continent. Large numbers of bustard, too, we

saw, and many herds of antelope.

The chief attraction for us, however, at this.

period of our journey, was the milk and cream

we could obtain. What a treat, indeed, it was,

after nearly four months without milk or any

of its products, to drink some of the rich

delicious stuff which these Mongols brought

us ! At one time in the forest, when I had

been out of sorts, I had been allowed a glass

of condensed milk from our stores as a medical

The whole of this tract from Petuna to Tsi-tsi-har is now under cultivation, so rapid has been the advance of Chinese colonisation.

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