e booty. The poachers are in
especial force from the fourth to the seventh moon. At this period, the
antlers of the stags send forth new shoots, which contain a sort of
half-coagulated blood, called _Lou-joung_, which plays a distinguished
part in the Chinese _Materia Medica_, for its supposed chemical
qualities, and fetches accordingly an exorbitant price. A _Lou-joung_
sometimes sells for as much as a hundred and fifty ounces of silver.

Deer of all kinds abound in the forest; and tigers, bears, wild boars,
panthers, and wolves are scarcely less numerous. Woe to the hunters and
wood-cutters who venture otherwise than in large parties into the
recesses of the forest; they disappear, leaving no vestige behind.

The fear of encountering one of these wild beasts kept us from prolonging
our walk. Besides, night was setting in, and we hastened back to our
tent. Our first slumber in the desert was peaceful, and next morning
early, after a breakfast of oatmeal steeped in tea, we resumed our march
along the great _Plateau_. We soon reached the great _Obo_, whither the
Tartars resort to worship the Spirit of the Mountain. The monument is
simply an enormous pile of stones, heaped up without any order, and
surmounted with dried branches of trees, from which hang bones and strips
of cloth, on which are inscribed verses in the Thibet and Mongol
languages.

[Picture: Buddhist Monuments]

At its base is a large granite urn in which the devotees burn incense.
They offer, besides, pieces of money, which the next Chinese passenger,
after sundry ceremonious genuflexions before the Obo, carefully collects
and pockets for his own particular benefit.

These Obos, which occur so frequently throughout Tartary, and which are
the objects of constant pilgrimages on the part of the Mongols, remind
one of the _loca excelsa_ denounced by the Jewish prophets.

It was near noon before the ground, beginning to slope, intimated that we
approached the termination of the plateau. We then descended rapidly
into a deep valley, where we found a small Mongolian encampment, which we
passed without pausing, and set up our tent for the night on the margin
of a pool further on. We were now in the kingdom of Gechekten, an
undulating country, well watered, with abundance of fuel and pasturage,
but desolated by bands of robbers. The Chinese, who have long since
taken possession of it, have rendered it a sort of general refuge f