erever
you turn you find only a soil, bare, and without verdure; rocky ravines,
marly hills, and plains covered with a fine, moving sand, blown by the
impetuous winds in every direction; for pasture, you will only find a few
thorny bushes and poor fern, dusty and fetid. At intervals only, this
horrible soil produces some thin, sharp grass, so firm in the earth, that
the animals can only get it up by digging the sand with their muzzles.
The numerous swamps, which had been so heavy a desolation to us on the
borders of the Yellow River, became matter of regret in the country of
the Ortous, so very rare here is water; not a single rivulet is there,
not a spring, where the traveller can quench his thirst; at distances
only are there ponds and cisterns, filled with a fetid, muddy water.

The Lamas, with whom we had been in communication at Blue Town, had
warned us of all the miseries we should have to endure in the country of
the Ortous, especially on account of the scarcity of water. By their
advice we had bought two wooden pails, which proved indeed of the
greatest service to us. Whenever we were lucky enough to find on our way
pools or wells dug by the Tartars, we filled our pails, without
considering too nicely the quality of the water, which we used with the
greatest economy, as if it had been some rare and precious beverage. In
spite of all these precautions, it happened more than once that we were
obliged to pass whole days without getting a single drop of water
wherewith to moisten our lips. But our personal privations were trifling
compared with the pain we felt at seeing our animals wanting water almost
every day in a country where they had nothing to eat beyond a few plants
nearly dried up, and, as it were, calcined by nitre, and where they
accordingly fell away visibly. After some days' travelling, the horse
assumed a truly wretched appearance; it bent down its head, and seemed,
at every step, as though it would sink down with weakness; the camels
painfully balanced themselves on their long legs, and their emaciated
humps hung over their backs like empty bags.

[Picture: The Steppes of Ortous]

The steppes of the Ortous, though so destitute of water and good pasture,
have not been quite abandoned by wild animals. You often find there grey
squirrels, agile yellow goats, and beautifully plumaged pheasants. Hares
are in abundance, and are so far from shy, that they did not even take
the