[1] Other English names of the bird are evejar, fern-owl, churn-owl
and wheel-bird--the last from the bird's song resembling the noise
made by a spinning-wheel in motion.
[2] In New Zealand, however, this name is given to an owl
(_Sceloglaux novae-zelandiae_).
GOBAT, SAMUEL (1799-1879), bishop of Jerusalem, was born at Cremine,
Bern, Switzerland, on the 26th of January 1799. After serving in the
mission house at Basel from 1823 to 1826, he went to Paris and London,
whence, having acquired some knowledge of Arabic and Ethiopic, he went
out to Abyssinia under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society.
The unsettled state of the country and his own ill health prevented his
making much headway; he returned to Europe in 1835 and from 1839 to 1842
lived in Malta, where he supervised an Arabic translation of the Bible.
In 1846 he was consecrated Protestant bishop of Jerusalem, under the
agreement between the British and Prussian governments (1841) for the
establishment of a joint bishopric for Lutherans and Anglicans in the
Holy Land. He carried on a vigorous mission as bishop for over thirty
years, his diocesan school and orphanage on Mount Zion being specially
noteworthy. He died on the 11th of May 1879.
A record of his life, largely autobiographical, was published at Basel
in 1884, and an English translation at London in the same year.
GOBEL, JEAN BAPTISTE JOSEPH (1727-1794), French ecclesiastic and
politician, was born at Thann, in Alsace, on the 1st of September 1727.
He studied theology in the German College at Rome, and then became
successively a member of the chapter of Porrentruy, bishop _in partibus_
of Lydda, and finally suffragan of Basel for that part of the diocese
situated in French territory. His political life began when he was
elected deputy to the states-general of 1789 by the clergy of the
_bailliage_ of Huningue. The turning-point of his life was his action in
taking the oath of the civil constitution of the clergy (Jan. 3rd,
1791); in favour of which he had declared himself since the 5th of May
1790. The civil constitution of the clergy gave the appointment of
priests to the electoral assemblies, and since taking the oath Gobel had
become so popular that he was elected bishop in several dioceses. He
chose Paris, and in spite of the difficulties which he had to encounter
before he could enter into possession, was consecrated on the 27th of
March 1791 by eight bishops, including Talleyrand. On the 8th of
November 1792, Gobel was appointed administrator of Paris. He was
careful to flatter the politicians by professing anti-clerical opinions,
declaring himself, among other things, opposed to the celibacy of the
clergy; and on the 17th Brumaire in the year II. (7th November 1793), he
came before the bar of the Convention, and, in a famous scene, resigned
his episcopal functions, proclaiming that he did so for love of the
people, and through respect for their wishes. The followers of Hebert,
who were then pursuing their anti-Christian policy, claimed Gobel as one
of themselves; while, on the other hand, Robespierre looked upon him as
an atheist, though apostasy cannot strictly speaking be laid to the
charge of the ex-bishop, nor did he ever make any actual profession of
atheism. Robespierre, however, found him an obstacle to his religious
schemes, and involved him in the fate of the Hebertists. Gobel was
condemned to death, with Chaumette, Hebert and Anacharsis Cloots, and
was guillotined on the 12th of April 1794.
See E. Charavay, _Assemblee electorale de Paris_ (Paris, 1890); H.
Monin, _La Chanson et l'Eglise sous la Revolution_ (Paris, 1892); A.
Aulard, "La Culte de la raison" in the review, _La Revolution
Francaise_ (1891). For a bibliography of documents relating to his
episcopate see "Episcopat de Gobel" in vol. iii. (1900) of M.
Tourneux's _Bibliographie de l'histoire de Paris pendant la Rev. Fr._
GOBELIN, the name of a family of dyers, who in all probability came
originally from Reims, and who in the middle of the 15th century
established themselves in the Faubourg Saint Marcel, Paris, on the banks
of the Bievre. The first head of the firm was named Jehan (d. 1476). He
discovered a peculiar kind of scarlet dyestuff, and he expended so much
money on his establishment that it was named by the common people _la
folie Gobelin_. To the dye-works there was added in the 16th century a
manufactory of tapestry (q.v.). So rapidly did the wealth of the family
increase, that in the third or fourth generation some of them forsook
their trade and purchased titles of nobility. More than one of their
number held offices of state, among others Balthasar, who became
successively treasurer general of artillery, treasurer extraordinary of
war, councillor secretary of the king, chancellor of the exchequer,
councillor of state and president of the chamber of accounts, and who in
1601 received from Henry IV. the lands and lordship of Briecomte-Robert.
He died in 1603. The name of the Gobelins as dyers cannot be found later
than the end of the 17th century. In 1662 the works in the Faubourg
Saint Marcel, with the adjoining grounds, were purchased by Colbert on
behalf of Louis XIV., and transformed into a general upholstery
manufactory, in which designs both in tapestry and in all kinds of
furniture were executed under the superintendence of the royal painter,
Le Brun. On account of the pecuniary embarrassments of Louis XIV., the
establishment was closed in 1694, but it was reopened in 1697 for the
manufacture of tapestry, chiefly for royal use and for presentation.
During the Revolution and the reign of Napoleon the manufacture was
suspended, but it was revived by the Bourbons, and in 1826 the
manufacture of carpets was added to that of tapestry. In 1871 the
building was partly burned by the Communists. The manufacture is still
carried on under the state.
See Lacordaire, _Notice historique sur les manufactures imperiales de
tapisserie des Gobelin et de tapis de la Savonnerie, precedee du
catalogue des tapisseries qui y sont exposes_ (Paris, 1853); Genspach,
_Repertoire detaille des tapisseries executees aux Gobelins,
1662-1892_ (Paris, 1893); Guiffrey, _Histoire de la tapisserie en
France_ (Paris, 1878-1885). The two last-named authors were directors
of the manufactory.
GOBI (for which alternative Chinese names are SHA-MO, "sand desert," and
HAN-HAI, "dry sea"), a term which in its widest significance means the
long stretch of desert country that extends from the foot of the Pamirs,
in about 77 deg. E., eastward to the Great Khingan Mountains, in 116
deg.-118 deg. E., on the border of Manchuria, and from the foothills of
the Altai, the Sayan and the Yablonoi Mountains on the N. to the
Astin-tagh or Altyn-tagh and the Nan-shan, the northernmost constituent
ranges of the Kuen-lun Mountains, on the south. By conventional usage a
relatively small area on the east side of the Great Khingan, between the
upper waters of the Sungari and the upper waters of the Liao-ho, is also
reckoned to belong to the Gobi. On the other hand, geographers and
Asiatic explorers prefer to regard the W. extremity of the Gobi region
(as defined above), namely, the basin of the Tarim in E. Turkestan, as
forming a separate and independent desert, to which they have given the
name of Takla-makan. The latter restriction governs the present article,
which accordingly excludes the Takla-makan, leaving it for separate
treatment. The desert of Gobi as a whole is only very imperfectly known,
information being confined to the observations which individual
travellers have made from their respective itineraries across the
desert. Amongst the explorers to whom we owe such knowledge as we
possess about the Gobi, the most important have been Marco Polo
(1273-1275), Gerbillon (1688-1698), Ijsbrand Ides (1692-1694), Lange
(1727-1728 and 1736), Fuss and Bunge (1830-1831), Fritsche (1868-1873),
Pavlinov and Matusovski (1870), Ney Elias (1872-1873), N. M. Przhevalsky
(1870-1872 and 1876-1877), Zosnovsky (1875), M. V. Pjevtsov (1878), G.
N. Potanin (1877 and 1884-1886), Count Szechenyi and L. von Loczy
(1879-1880), the brothers Grum-Grzhimailo (1889-1890), P. K. Kozlov
(1893-1894 and 1899-1900), V. I. Roborovsky (1894), V. A. Obruchev
(1894-1896), Futterer and Holderer (1896); C. E. Bonin (1896 and 1899),
Sven Hedin (1897 and 1900-1901), K. Bogdanovich (1898), Ladyghin
(1899-1900) and Katsnakov (1899-1900).
Geographically the Gobi (a Mongol word meaning "desert") is the deeper
part of the gigantic depression which fills the interior of the lower
terrace of the vast Mongolian plateau, and measures over 1000 m. from
S.W. to N.E. and 450 to 600 m. from N. to S., being widest in the west,
along the line joining the Baghrash-kol and the Lop-nor (87 deg.-89 deg.
E.). Owing to the immense area covered, and the piecemeal character of
the information, no general description can be made applicable to the
whole of the Gobi. It will be more convenient, therefore, to describe
its principal distinctive sections _seriatim_, beginning in the west.
_Ghashiun-Gobi and Kuruk-tagh._--The Yulduz valley or valley of the
Khaidyk-gol (83 deg.-86 deg. E., 43 deg. N.) is enclosed by two
prominent members of the Tian-shan system, namely the Chol-tagh and
the Kuruk-tagh, running parallel and close to one another. As they
proceed eastward they diverge, sweeping back on N. and S. respectively
so as to leave room for the Baghrash-kol. These two ranges mark the
northern and the southern edges respectively of a great swelling,
which extends eastward for nearly twenty degrees of longitude. On its
northern side the Chol-tagh descends steeply, and its foot is fringed
by a string of deep depressions, ranging from Lukchun (425 ft. _below_
the level of the sea) to Hami (2800 ft. above sea-level). To the south
of the Kuruk-tagh lie the desert of Lop, the desert of Kum-tagh, and
the valley of the Bulunzir-gol. To this great swelling, which arches
up between the two border-ranges of the Chol-tagh and Kuruk-tagh, the
Mongols give the name of Ghashiun-Gobi or Salt Desert. It is some 80
to 100 m. across from N. to S., and is traversed by a number of minor
parallel ranges, ridges and chains of hills, and down its middle runs
a broad stony valley, 25 to 50 m. wide, at an elevation of 3000 to
4500 ft. The Chol-tagh, which reaches an average altitude of 6000 ft.,
is absolutely sterile, and its northern foot rests upon a narrow belt
of barren sand, which leads down to the depressions mentioned above.
The Kuruk-tagh is the greatly disintegrated, denuded and wasted relic
of a mountain range which formerly was of incomparably greater
magnitude. In the west, between Baghrash-kol and the Tarim, it
consists of two, possibly of three, principal ranges, which, although
broken in continuity, run generally parallel to one another, and
embrace between them numerous minor chains of heights. These minor
ranges, together with the principal ranges, divide the region into a
series of long, narrow valleys, mostly parallel to one another and to
the enclosing mountain chains, which descend like terraced steps, on
the one side towards the depression of Lukchun and on the other
towards the desert of Lop. In many cases these latitudinal valleys are
barred transversely by ridges or spurs, generally elevations _en
masse_ of the bottom of the valley. Where such elevations exist, there
is generally found, on the E. side of the transverse ridge, a
cauldron-shaped depression, which some time or other has been the
bottom of a former lake, but is now nearly a dry salt-basin. The
surface configuration is in fact markedly similar to that which occurs
in the inter-mont latitudinal valleys of the Kuen-lun. The hydrography
of the Ghashiun-Gobi and the Kuruk-tagh is determined by these
chequered arrangements of the latitudinal valleys. Most of the
principal streams, instead of flowing straight down these valleys,
cross them diagonally and only turn west after they have cut their way
through one or more of the transverse barrier ranges.[1] To the
highest range on the great swelling Grum-Grzhimailo gives the name of
Tuge-tau, its altitude being 9000 ft. above the level of the sea and
some 4000 ft. above the crown of the swelling itself. This range he
considers to belong to the Chol-tagh system, whereas Sven Hedin would
assign it to the Kuruk-tagh. This last, which is pretty certainly
identical with the range of Khara-teken-ula (also known as the
Kyzyl-sanghir, Sinir, and Singher Mountains), that overlooks the
southern shore of the Baghrash-kol, though parted from it by the
drift-sand desert of Ak-bel-kum (White Pass Sands), has at first a
W.N.W. to E.S.E. strike, but it gradually curves round like a scimitar
towards the E.N.E. and at the same time gradually decreases in
elevation. In 91 deg. E., while the principal range of the Kuruk-tagh
system wheels to the E.N.E., four of its subsidiary ranges terminate,
or rather die away somewhat suddenly, on the brink of a long narrow
depression (in which Sven Hedin sees a N.E. bay of the former great
Central Asian lake of Lop-nor), having over against them the echeloned
terminals of similar subordinate ranges of the Pe-shan (Bey-san)
system (see below). The Kuruk-tagh is throughout a relatively low, but
almost completely barren range, being entirely destitute of animal
life, save for hares, antelopes and wild camels, which frequent its
few small, widely scattered oases. The vegetation, which is confined
to these same relatively favoured spots, is of the scantiest and is
mainly confined to bushes of saxaul (_Anabasis Ammodendron_), reeds
(_kamish_), tamarisks, poplars, _Kalidium_ and _Ephedra_.
_Desert of Lop._--This section of the Gobi extends south-eastward from
the foot of the Kuruk-tagh as far as the present terminal basin of the
Tarim, namely Kara-koshun (Przhevalsky's Lop-nor), and is an almost
perfectly horizontal expanse, for, while the Baghrash-kol in the N.
lies at an altitude of 2940 ft., the Kara-koshun, over 200 m. to the
S., is only 300 ft. lower. The characteristic features of this almost
dead level or but slightly undulating region are: (i.) broad, unbroken
expanses of clay intermingled with sand, the clay (_shor_) being
indurated and saliferous and often arranged in terraces; (ii.) hard,
level, clay expanses, more or less thickly sprinkled with fine gravel
(_say_), the clay being mostly of a yellow or yellow-grey colour;
(iii.) benches, flattened ridges and tabular masses of consolidated
clay (_jardangs_), arranged in distinctly defined _laminae_, three
stories being sometimes superimposed one upon the other, and their
vertical faces being abraded, and often undercut, by the wind, while
the formations themselves are separated by parallel gullies or
wind-furrows, 6 to 20 ft. deep, all sculptured in the direction of the
prevailing wind, that is, from N.E. to S.W.; and (iv.) the absence of
drift-sand and sand-dunes, except in the south, towards the outlying
foothills of the Astin-tagh. Perhaps the most striking characteristic,
after the jardangs or clay terraces, is the fact that the whole of
this region is not only swept bare of sand by the terrific sandstorms
(_burans_) of the spring months, the particles of sand with which the
wind is laden acting like a sand-blast, but the actual substantive
materials of the desert itself are abraded, filed, eroded and carried
bodily away into the network of lakes in which the Tarim loses itself,
or are even blown across the lower, constantly shifting watercourses
of that river and deposited on or among the gigantic dunes which choke
the eastern end of the desert of Takla-makan. Numerous indications,
such as salt-stained depressions of a lacustrine appearance, traces of
former lacustrine shore-lines, more or less parallel and concentric,
the presence in places of vast quantities of fresh-water mollusc
shells (species of _Limnaea_ and _Planorbis_), the existence of belts
of dead poplars, patches of dead tamarisks and extensive beds of
withered reeds, all these always on top of the jardangs, never in the
wind-etched furrows, together with a few scrubby poplars and
_Elaeagnus_, still struggling hard not to die, the presence of ripple
marks of aqueous origin on the leeward sides of the clay terraces and
in other wind-sheltered situations, all testify to the former
existence in this region of more or less extensive freshwater lakes,
now of course completely desiccated. During the prevalence of the
spring storms the atmosphere that overhangs the immediate surface of
the desert is so heavily charged with dust as to be a veritable pall
of desolation. Except for the wild camel which frequents the reed
oases on the N. edge of the desert, animal life is even less abundant
than in the Ghashiun-Gobi, and the same is true as regards the
vegetation.
_Desert of Kum-tagh._--This section lies E.S.E. of the desert of Lop,
on the other side of the Kara-koshun and its more or less temporary
continuations, and reaches north-eastwards as far as the vicinity of
the town of Sa-chow and the lake of Kara-nor or Kala-chi. Its southern
rim is marked by a labyrinth of hills, dotted in groups and irregular
clusters, but evidently survivals of two parallel ranges which are now
worn down as it were to mere fragments of their former skeletal
structure. Between these and the Astin-tagh intervenes a broad
latitudinal valley, seamed with watercourses which come down from the
foothills of the Astin-tagh and beside which scrubby desert plants of
the usual character maintain a precarious existence, water reaching
them in some instances at intervals of years only. This part of the
desert has a general slope N.W. towards the relative depression of the
Kara-koshun. A noticeable feature of the Kum-tagh is the presence of
large accumulations of drift-sand, especially along the foot of the
crumbling desert ranges, where it rises into dunes sometimes as much
as 250 ft. in height and climbs half-way up the flanks of ranges
themselves. The prevailing winds in this region would appear to blow
from the W. and N.W. during the summer, winter and autumn, though in
spring, when they certainly are more violent, they no doubt come from
the N.E., as in the desert of Lop. Anyway, the arrangement of the sand
here "agrees perfectly with the law laid down by Potanin, that in the
basins of Central Asia the sand is heaped up in greater mass on the
south, all along the bordering mountain ranges where the floor of the
depressions lies at the highest level."[2] The country to the north of
the desert ranges is thus summarily described by Sven Hedin:[3] "The
first zone of drift-sand is succeeded by a region which exhibits
proofs of wind-modelling on an extraordinarily energetic and well
developed scale, the results corresponding to the jardangs and the
wind-eroded gullies of the desert of Lop. Both sets of phenomena lie
parallel to one another; from this we may infer that the winds which
prevail in the two deserts are the same. Next comes, sharply
demarcated from the zone just described, a more or less thin kamish
steppe growing on level ground; and this in turn is followed by
another very narrow belt of sand, immediately south of Achik-kuduk....
Finally in the extreme north we have the characteristic and sharply
defined belt of kamish steppe, stretching from E.N.E. to W.S.W. and
bounded on N. and S. by high, sharp-cut clay terraces.... At the
points where we measured them the northern terrace was 113 ft. high
and the southern 85-1/4 ft.... Both terraces belong to the same level,
and would appear to correspond to the shore lines of a big bay of the
last surviving remnant of the Central Asian Mediterranean. At the
point where I crossed it the depression was 6 to 7 m. wide, and thus
resembled a flat valley or immense river-bed."
_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.[4] 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 deg.) 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.[5] 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 Lou-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.[6]
_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_[7] (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_.[8] 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."[9] 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 the sand-dunes cross over to the left bank of
the Hwang-ho, and are threaded by the beds of dry watercourses, while
the level spaces amongst them are studded with little mounds (3 to 6
ft. high), on which grow stunted _Nitraria Scoberi_ and _Zygophyllum_.
Ordos, which was anciently known as Ho-nan ("the country south of the
river") and still farther back in time as Ho-tau, was occupied by the
Hiong-nu in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D., but was almost depopulated
during and after the Dungan revolt of 1869. North of the big loop of
the Hwang-ho Ordos is separated from the central Gobi by a succession
of mountain chains, the Kara-naryn-ula, the Sheiten-ula, and the
In-shan Mountains, which link on to the south end of the Great Khingan
Mountains. The In-shan Mountains, which stretch from 108 deg. to 112
deg. E., have a wild Alpine character and are distinguished from other
mountains in the S.E. of Mongolia by an abundance of both water and
vegetation. In one of their constituent ranges, the bold Munni-ula, 70
m. long and nearly 20 m. wide, they attain elevations of 7500 to 8500
ft., and have steep flanks, slashed with rugged gorges and narrow
glens. Forests begin on them at 5300 ft. and wild flowers grow in
great profusion and variety in summer, though with a striking lack of
brilliancy in colouring. In this same border range there is also a
much greater abundance and variety of animal life, especially amongst
the avifauna.
_Eastern Gobi._--Here the surface is extremely diversified, although
there are no great differences in vertical elevation. Between Urga (48
deg. N. and 107 deg. E.) and the little lake of Iren-dubasu-nor (111
deg. 50' E. and 43 deg. 45' N.) the surface is greatly eroded, and
consists of broad flat depressions and basins separated by groups of
flat-topped mountains of relatively low elevation (500 to 600 ft.),
through which archaic rocks crop out as crags and isolated rugged
masses. The floors of the depressions lie mostly between 2900 and 3200
ft. above sea-level. Farther south, between Iren-dubasu-nor and the
Hwang-ho comes a region of broad tablelands alternating with flat
plains, the latter ranging at altitudes of 3300 to 3600 ft. and the
former at 3500 to 4000 ft. The slopes of the plateaus are more or less
steep, and are sometimes penetrated by "bays" of the lowlands. As the
border-range of the Khingan is approached the country steadily rises
up to 4500 ft. and then to 5350 ft. Here small lakes frequently fill
the depressions, though the water in them is generally salt or
brackish. And both here, and for 200 m. south of Urga, streams are
frequent, and grass grows more or less abundantly. There is, however,
through all the central parts, until the bordering mountains are
reached, an utter absence of trees and shrubs. Clay and sand are the
predominant formations, the watercourses, especially in the north,
being frequently excavated 6 to 8 ft. deep, and in many places in the
flat, dry valleys or depressions farther south beds of loess, 15 to 20
ft. thick, are exposed. West of the route from Urga to Kalgan the
country presents approximately the same general features, except that
the mountains are not so irregularly scattered in groups but have more
strongly defined strikes, mostly E. to W., W.N.W. to E.S.E., and
W.S.W. to E.N.E. The altitudes too are higher, those of the lowlands
ranging from 3300 to 5600 ft., and those of the ranges from 650 to
1650 ft. higher, though in a few cases they reach altitudes of 8000
ft. above sea-level. The elevations do not, however, as a rule form
continuous chains, but make up a congeries of short ridges and groups
rising from a common base and intersected by a labyrinth of ravines,
gullies, glens and basins. But the tablelands, built up of the
horizontal red deposits of the Han-hai (Obruchev's Gobi formation)
which are characteristic of the southern parts of eastern Mongolia,
are absent here or occur only in one locality, near the Shara-muren
river, and are then greatly intersected by gullies or dry
watercourses.[10] Here there is, however, a great dearth of water, no
streams, no lakes, no wells, and precipitation falls but seldom. The
prevailing winds blow from the W. and N.W. and the pall of dust
overhangs the country as in the Takla-makan and the desert of Lop.
Characteristic of the flora are wild garlic, _Kalidium gracile_,
wormwood, saxaul, _Nitraria Scoberi_, _Caragana_, _Ephedra_, saltwort
and _dirisun_ (_Lasiagrostis splendens_).
This great desert country of Gobi is crossed by several trade routes,
some of which have been in use for thousands of years. Among the most
important are those from Kalgan on the frontier of China to Urga (600
m.), from Su-chow (in Kan-suh) to Hami (420 m.) from Hami to Peking
(1300 m.), from Kwei-hwa-cheng (or Kuku-khoto) to Hami and Barkul, and
from Lanchow (in Kan-suh) to Hami.
_Climate._--The climate of the Gobi is one of great extremes, combined
with rapid changes of temperature, not only at all seasons of the year
but even within 24 hours (as much as 58 deg. F.). For instance, at
Urga (3770 ft.) the annual mean is 27.5 deg. F., the January mean
-15.7 deg., and the July mean 63.5 deg., the extremes being 100.5 deg.
and -44.5 deg.; while at Sivantse (3905 ft.) the annual mean is 37
deg., the January mean 2.3 deg., and the July mean 66.3 deg., the
range being from a recorded maximum of 93 deg. to a recorded minimum
of -53 deg. Even in southern Mongolia the thermometer goes down as low
as -27 deg., and in Ala-shan it rises day after day in July as high as
99 deg. Although the south-east monsoons reach the S.E. parts of the
Gobi, the air generally throughout this region is characterized by
extreme dryness, especially during the winter. Hence the icy
sandstorms and snowstorms of spring and early summer. The rainfall at
Urga for the year amounts to only 9.7 in.
_Sands of the Gobi Deserts._--With regard to the origin of the masses
of sand out of which the dunes and chains of dunes (_barkhans_) are
built up in the several deserts of the Gobi, opinions differ. While
some explorers consider them to be the product of marine, or at any
rate lacustrine, denudation (the Central Asian Mediterranean),
others--and this is not only the more reasonable view, but it is the
view which is gaining most ground--consider that they are the products
of the aerial denudation of the border ranges (e.g. Nan-shan,
Karlyk-tagh, &c.), and more especially of the terribly wasted ranges
and chains of hills, which, like the gaunt fragments of montane
skeletal remains, lie littered all over the swelling uplands and
tablelands of the Gobi, and that they have been transported by the
prevailing winds to the localities in which they are now accumulated,
the winds obeying similar transportation laws to the rivers and
streams which carry down sediment in moister parts of the world.
Potanin points out[11] that "there is a certain amount of regularity
observable in the distribution of the sandy deserts over the vast
uplands of central Asia. Two agencies are represented in the
distribution of the sands, though what they really are is not quite
clear; and of these two agencies one prevails in the north-west, the
other in the south-east, so that the whole of Central Asia may be
divided into two regions, the dividing line between them being drawn
from north-east to south-west, from Urga via the eastern end of the
Tian-shan to the city of Kashgar. North-west of this line the sandy
masses are broken up into detached and disconnected areas, and are
almost without exception heaped up around the lakes, and consequently
in the lowest parts of the several districts in which they exist.
Moreover, we find also that these sandy tracts always occur on the
western or south-western shores of the lakes; this is the case with
the lakes of Balkash, Ala-kul, Ebi-nor, Ayar-nor (or Telli-nor),
Orku-nor, Zaisan-nor, Ulungur-nor, Ubsa-nor, Durga-nor and Kara-nor
lying E. of Kirghiz-nor. South-east of the line the arrangement of the
sand is quite different. In that part of Asia we have three gigantic
but disconnected basins. The first, lying farthest east, is embraced
on the one side by the ramifications of the Kentei and Khangai
Mountains and on the other by the In-shan Mountains. The second or
middle division is contained between the Altai of the Gobi and the
Ala-shan. The third basin, in the west, lies between the Tian-shan and
the border ranges of western Tibet.... The deepest parts of each of
these three depressions occur near their northern borders; towards
their southern boundaries they are all alike very much higher....
However, the sandy deserts are not found in the low-lying tracts but
occur on the higher uplands which foot the southern mountain ranges,
the In-shan and the Nan-shan. Our maps show an immense expanse of sand
south of the Tarim in the western basin; beginning in the
neighbourhood of the city of Yarkent (Yarkand), it extends eastwards
past the towns of Khotan, Keriya and Cherchen to Sa-chow. Along this
stretch there is only one locality which forms an exception to the
rule we have indicated, namely, the region round the lake of Lop-nor.
In the middle basin the widest expanse of sand occurs between the
Edzin-gol and the range of Ala-shan. On the south it extends nearly as
far as a line drawn through the towns of Lian-chow, Kan-chow and
Kao-tai at the foot of the Nan-shan; but on the south it does not
approach anything like so far as the latitude (42 deg. N.) of the lake
of Ghashiun-nor. Still farther east come the sandy deserts of Ordos,
extending south-eastward as far as the mountain range which separates
Ordos from the (Chinese) provinces of Shan-si and Shen-si. In the
eastern basin drift-sand is encountered between the district of Ude in
the north (44 deg. 30' N.) and the foot of the In-shan in the south."
In two regions, if not in three, the sands have overwhelmed large
tracts of once cultivated country, and even buried the cities in which
men formerly dwelt. These regions are the southern parts of the desert
of Takla-makan (where Sven Hedin and M. A. Stein[12] have discovered
the ruins under the desert sands), along the N. foot of the Nan-shan,
and probably in part (other agencies having helped) in the north of
the desert of Lop, where Sven Hedin discovered the ruins of Lou-lan
and of other towns or villages. For these vast accumulations of sand
are constantly in movement; though the movement is slow, it has
nevertheless been calculated that in the south of the Takla-makan the
sand-dunes travel bodily at the rate of roughly something like 160 ft.
in the course of a year. The shape and arrangement of the individual
sand-dunes, and of the barkhans, generally indicate from which
direction the predominant winds blow. On the windward side of the dune
the slope is long and gentle, while the leeward side is steep and in
outline concave like a horse-shoe. The dunes vary in height from 30 up
to 300 ft., and in some places mount as it were upon one another's
shoulders, and in some localities it is even said that a third tier is
sometimes superimposed.
AUTHORITIES.--See N. M. Przhevalsky, _Mongolia, the Tangut Country,
&c._ (Eng. trans., ed. by Sir H. Yule, London, 1876), and _From Kulja
across the Tian Shan to Lob Nor_ (Eng. trans, by Delmar Morgan,
London, 1879); G. N. Potanin, _Tangutsko-Tibetskaya Okraina Kitaya i
Centralnaya Mongoliya, 1884-1886_ (1893, &c.); M. V. Pjevtsov, _Sketch
of a Journey to Mongolia_ (in Russian, Omsk, 1883); G. E.
Grum-Grzhimailo, _Opisanie Puteshestviya v Sapadniy Kitai_
(1898-1899); V. A. Obruchev, _Centralnaya Asiya, Severniy Kitai i
Nan-schan, 1892-1894_ (1900-1901); V. I. Roborovsky and P. K. Kozlov,
_Trudy Ekspeditsiy Imp. Russ. Geog. Obshchestva Po Centralnoy Asiy,
1893-1895_ (1900, &c.); Roborovsky, _Trudy Tibetskoi Ekspeditsiy,
1889-1890_; Sven Hedin, _Scientific Results of a Journey in Central
Asia, 1899-1902_ (6 vols., 1905-1907); Futterer, _Durch Asien_ (1901,
&c.); K. Bogdanovich, _Geologicheskiya Isledovaniya v Vostochnom
Turkestane_ and _Trudiy Tibetskoy Ekspeditsiy, 1889-1890_; L. von
Loczy, _Die wissenschaftlichen Ergebnisse der Reise des Grafen
Szechenyi in Ostasien, 1877-1880_ (1883); Ney Elias, in _Journ. Roy.
Geog. Soc._ (1873); C. W. Campbell's "Journeys in Mongolia," in
_Geographical Journal_ (Nov. 1903); Pozdnievym, _Mongolia and the
Mongols_ (in Russian, St Petersburg, 1897 &c.); Deniker's summary of
Kozlov's latest journeys in _La Geographie_ (1901, &c.); F. von
Richthofen, _China_ (1877). (J. T. Be.)