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century, after their expulsion from China." Dr. Bretschneider (_Med. Res._ I. p. 123) rightly observes: "It seems, however, that Paderin is mistaken in his supposition. At least it does not agree with the position assigned to the ancient Mongol residence in the Mongol annals _Erdenin erikhe_, translated into Russian, in 1883, by Professor Pozdneiev. It is there positively stated (p. 110, note 2) that the monastery of _Erdenidsu_, founded in 1585, was erected on the ruins of that city, which once had been built by order of Ogotai Khan, and where he had established his residence; and where, after the expulsion of the Mongols from China, Togontemur again had fixed the Mongol court. This vast monastery still exists, one English mile, or more, east of the Orkhon. It has even been astronomically determined by the Jesuit missionaries, and is marked on our maps of Mongolia. Pozdneiev, who visited the place in 1877, obligingly informs me that the square earthen wall surrounding the monastery of Erdenidsu, and measuring about an English mile in circumference, may well be the very wall of ancient Karakorum." Recent researches have fully confirmed the belief that the Erdeni Tso, or Eideni Chao, Monastery occupies the site of Karakorum, near the bank of the Orkhon, between this river and the Kokchin (old) Orkhon. (See map in _Inscriptions de l'Orkhon_, Helsingfors, 1892; a plan of the vicinity and of the Erdeni Tso is given (plate 36) in _W. Radloff's Atlas der Alterthuemer der Mongolei_, St. Pet., 1892.) [Illustration] According to a work of the 13th century quoted by the late Professor G. Deveria, the distance between the old capital of the Uighur, Kara Balgasun, on the left bank of the Orkhon, north of Erdeni Tso, and the Ho-lin or Karakorum of the Mongols, would be 70 _li_ (about 30 miles), and such is the space between Erdeni Tso and Kara Balgasun. M. Marcel Monnier (_Itineraires_, p. 107) estimates the bird's-eye distance from Erdeni Tso to Kara Balgasun at 33 kilom. (about 20-1/2 miles). "When the brilliant epoch of the power of the Chinghizkhanides," says Professor Axel Heikel, "was at an end, the city of Karakorum fell into oblivion, and towards the year 1590 was founded, in the centre of this historically celebrated region of the Orkhon, the most ancient of Buddhist monasteries of Mongolia, this of Erdeni Tso [Erdeni Chao]. It was built, according to a Mongol chronicle, on the ruins of the town built by Okkodai, so
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