Chapter VIII: Part 8

_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.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Cf. G. E. Grum-Grzhimailo, _Opisaniye Puteshestviya_, i. 381-417.

[2] Quoted in Sven Hedin, _Scientific Results_, ii. 499.

[3] _Op. cit._ ii. 499-500.

[4] Przhevalsky, _Iz Zayana cherez Hami v Tibet na Vershovya Shaltoy
Reki_, pp. 84-91.

[5] Futterer, _Durch Asien_, i. pp. 206-211.

[6] G. E. Grum-Grzhimailo, _Opisanie Puteshestviya v Sapadniy Kitai_,
ii. p. 127.

[7] Its seeds are pounded by the Mongols to flour and mixed with
their tea.

[8] Przhevalsky, _Mongolia_ (Eng. trans. ed. by Sir H. Yule).

[9] Przhevalsky, _op. cit._ p. 183.

[10] Obruchev. in _Izvestia_ of Russ. Geogr. Soc. (1895).

[11] In _Tangutsko-Tibetskaya Okraina Kitaya i Centralnaya
Mongoliya_, i. pp. 96, &c.

[12] See _Sand-buried Cities of Khotan_ (London, 1902).

GOBLET, RENE (1828-1905), French politician, was born at Aire-sur-la-Lys, in the Pas de Calais, on the 26th of November 1828, and was educated for the law. Under the Second Empire, he helped to found a Liberal journal, _Le Progres de la Somme_, and in July 1871 was sent by the department of the Somme to the National Assembly, where he took his place on the extreme left. He failed to secure election in 1876, but next year was returned for Amiens. He held a minor government office in 1879, and in 1882 became minister of the interior in the Freycinet cabinet. He was minister of education, fine arts and religion in Henri Brisson's first cabinet in 1885, and again under Freycinet in 1886, when he greatly increased his reputation by an able defence of the government's education proposals. Meanwhile his extreme independence and excessive candour had alienated him from many of his party, and all through his life he was frequently in conflict with his political associates, from Gambetta downwards. On the fall of the Freycinet cabinet in December he formed a cabinet in which he reserved for himself the portfolios of the interior and of religion. The Goblet cabinet was unpopular from the outset, and it was with difficulty that anybody could be found to accept the ministry of foreign affairs, which was finally given to M. Flourens. Then came what is known as the Schnaebele incident, the arrest on the German frontier of a French official named Schnaebele, which caused immense excitement in France. For some days Goblet took no definite decision, but left Flourens, who stood for peace, to fight it out with General Boulanger, then minister of war, who was for the despatch of an ultimatum. Although he finally intervened on the side of Flourens, and peace was preserved, his weakness in face of the Boulangist propaganda became a national danger. Defeated on the budget in May 1887, his government resigned; but he returned to office next year as foreign minister in the radical administration of Charles Floquet. He was defeated at the polls by a Boulangist candidate in 1889, and sat in the senate from 1891 to 1893, when he returned to the popular chamber. In association with MM. E. Lockroy, Ferdinand Sarrien and P. L. Peytral he drew up a republican programme which they put forward in the _Petite Republique francaise_. At the elections of 1898 he was defeated, and thenceforward took little part in public affairs. He died in Paris on the 13th of September 1905.

GOBLET, a large type of drinking-vessel, particularly one shaped like a cup, without handles, and mounted on a shank with a foot. The word is derived from the O. Fr. _gobelet_, diminutive of _gobel_, _gobeau_, which Skeat takes to be formed from Low Lat. _cupellus_, cup, diminutive of _cupa_, tub, cask (see DRINKING-VESSELS).

GOBY. The gobies (_Gobius_) are small fishes readily recognized by their ventrals (the fins on the lower surface of the chest) being united into one fin, forming a suctorial disk, by which these fishes are enabled to attach themselves in every possible position to a rock or other firm substances. They are essentially coast-fishes, inhabiting nearly all seas, but disappearing towards the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. Many enter, or live exclusively in, such fresh waters as are at no great distance from the sea. Nearly 500 different kinds are known. The largest British species, _Gobius capito_, occurring in the rock-pools of Cornwall, measures 10 in. _Gobius alcocki_, from brackish and fresh waters of Lower Bengal, is one of the very smallest of fishes, not measuring over 16 millimetres (= 7 lines). The males are usually more brilliantly coloured than the females, and guard the eggs, which are often placed in a sort of nest made of the shell of some bivalve or of the carapace of a crab, with the convexity turned upwards and covered with sand, the eggs being stuck to the inner surface of this roof.

Close allies of the gobies are the walking fish or jumping fish (_Periophthalmus_), of which various species are found in great numbers on the mud flats at the mouths of rivers in the tropics, skipping about by means of the muscular, scaly base of their pectoral fins, with the head raised and bearing a pair of strongly projecting versatile eyes close together.

GOCH, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, on the Niers, 8 m. S. of Cleves at the junction of the railways Cologne-Zevenaar and Boxtel-Wesel. Pop. (1905) 10,232. It has a Protestant and a Roman Catholic church and manufactures of brushes, plush goods, cigars and margarine. In the middle ages it was the seat of a large trade in linen. Goch became a town in 1231 and belonged to the dukes of Gelderland and later to the dukes of Cleves.

GOD, the common Teutonic word for a personal object of religious worship. It is thus, like the Gr. [Greek: theos] and Lat. _deus_, applied to all those superhuman beings of the heathen mythologies who exercise power over nature and man and are often identified with some particular sphere of activity; and also to the visible material objects, whether an image of the supernatural being or a tree, pillar, &c. used as a symbol, an idol. The word "god," on the conversion of the Teutonic races to Christianity, was adopted as the name of the one Supreme Being, the Creator of the universe, and of the Persons of the Trinity. The _New English Dictionary_ points out that whereas the old Teutonic type of the word is neuter, corresponding to the Latin _numen_, in the Christian applications it becomes masculine, and that even where the earlier neuter form is still kept, as in Gothic and Old Norwegian, the construction is masculine. Popular etymology has connected the word with "good"; this is exemplified by the corruption of "God be with you" into "good-bye." "God" is a word common to all Teutonic languages. In Gothic it is _Guth_; Dutch has the same form as English; Danish and Swedish have _Gud_, German _Gott_. According to the _New English Dictionary_, the original may be found in two Aryan roots, both of the form _gheu_, one of which means "to invoke," the other "to pour" (cf. Gr. [Greek: cheein]); the last is used of sacrificial offerings. The word would thus mean the object either of religious invocation or of religious worship by sacrifice. It has been also suggested that the word might mean a "molten image" from the sense of "pour."

See RELIGION; HEBREW RELIGION; THEISM, &c.

GODALMING, a market-town and municipal borough in the Guildford parliamentary division of Surrey, England, 34 m. S.W. of London by the London & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 8748. It is beautifully situated on the right bank of the Wey, which is navigable thence to the Thames, and on the high road between London and Portsmouth. Steep hills, finely wooded, enclose the valley. The chief public buildings are the church of SS. Peter and Paul, a cruciform building of mixed architecture, but principally Early English and Perpendicular; the town-hall, Victoria hall, and market-house, and a technical institute and school of science and art. Charterhouse School, one of the principal English public schools, originally founded in 1611, was transferred from Charterhouse Square, London, to Godalming in 1872. It stands within grounds 92 acres in extent, half a mile north of Godalming, and consists of spacious buildings in Gothic style, with a chapel, library and hall, besides boarding-houses, masters' houses and sanatoria. (See CHARTERHOUSE.) Godalming has manufactures of paper, leather, parchment and hosiery, and some trade in corn, malt, bark, hoops and timber; and the Bargate stone, of which the parish church is built, is still quarried. The borough is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area, 812 acres.

Godalming (Godelminge) belonged to King Alfred, and was a royal manor at the time of Domesday. The manor belonged to the see of Salisbury in the middle ages, but reverted to the crown in the time of Henry VIII. Godalming was incorporated by Elizabeth in 1574, when the borough originated. The charter was confirmed by James I. in 1620, and a fresh charter was granted by Charles II. in 1666. The borough was never represented in parliament. The bishop of Salisbury in 1300 received the grant of a weekly market to be held on Mondays: the day was altered to Wednesday by Elizabeth's charter. The bishop's grant included a fair at the feast of St Peter and St Paul (29th of June). Another fair at Candlemas (2nd of February) was granted by Elizabeth. The market is still held. The making of cloth, particularly Hampshire kerseys, was the staple industry of Godalming in the middle ages, but it began to decay early in the 17th century and by 1850 was practically extinct. As in other cases, dyeing was subsidiary to the cloth industry. Tanning, introduced in the 15th century, survives. The present manufacture of fleecy hosiery dates from the end of the 18th century.

GODARD, BENJAMIN LOUIS PAUL (1849-1895); French composer, was born in Paris, on the 18th of August 1849. He studied at the Conservatoire, and competed for the Prix de Rome without success in 1866 and 1867. He began by publishing a number of songs, many of which are charming, such as "Je ne veux pas d'autres choses," "Ninon," "Chanson de Florian," also a quantity of piano pieces, some chamber music, including several violin sonatas, a trio for piano and strings, a quartet for strings, a violin concerto and a second work of the same kind entitled "Concerto Romantique." Godard's chance arrived in the year 1878, when with his dramatic cantata, _Le Tasse_, he shared with M. Theodore Dubois the honour of winning the musical competition instituted by the city of Paris. From that time until his death Godard composed a surprisingly large number of works, including four operas, _Pedro de Zalamea_, produced at Antwerp in 1884; _Jocelyn_, given in Paris at the Theatre du Chateau d'Eau, in 1888; _Dante_, played at the Opera Comique two years later; and _La Vivandiere_, left unfinished and partly scored by another hand. This last work was heard at the Opera Comique in 1895, and has been played in England by the Carl Rosa Opera Company. His other works include the "Symphonie legendaire," "Symphonie gothique," "Diane" and various orchestral works. Godard's productivity was enormous, and his compositions are, for this reason only, decidedly unequal. He was at his best in works of smaller dimensions, and has left many exquisite songs. Among his more ambitious works the "Symphonie legendaire" may be singled out as being one of the most distinctive. He had a decided individuality, and his premature death at Cannes on the 10th of January 1895 was a loss to French art.

GODAVARI, a river of central and western India. It flows across the Deccan from the Western to the Eastern Ghats; its total length is 900 m., the estimated area of its drainage basin, 112,200 sq. m. Its traditional source is on the side of a hill behind the village of Trimbak in Nasik district, Bombay, where the water runs into a reservoir from the lips of an image. But according to popular legend it proceeds from the same ultimate source as the Ganges, though underground. Its course is generally south-easterly. After passing through Nasik district, it crosses into the dominions of the nizam of Hyderabad. When it again strikes British territory it is joined by the Pranhita, with its tributaries the Wardha, the Penganga and Wainganga. For some distance it flows between the nizam's dominions and the Upper Godavari district, and receives the Indravati, the Tal and the Sabari. The stream has here a channel varying from 1 to 2 m. in breadth, occasionally broken by alluvial islands. Parallel to the river stretch long ranges of hills. Below the junction of the Sabari the channel begins to contract. The flanking hills gradually close in on both sides, and the result is a magnificent gorge only 200 yds. wide through which the water flows into the plain of the delta, about 60 m. from the sea. The head of the delta is at the village of Dowlaishweram, where the main stream is crossed by the irrigation anicut. The river has seven mouths, the largest being the Gautami Godavari. The Godavari is regarded as peculiarly sacred, and once every twelve years the great bathing festival called _Pushkaram_ is held on its banks at Rajahmundry.

The upper waters of the Godavari are scarcely utilized for irrigation, but the entire delta has been turned into a garden of perennial crops by means of the anicut at Dowlaishweram, constructed by Sir Arthur Cotton, from which three main canals are drawn off. The river channel here is 3-1/2 m. wide. The anicut is a substantial mass of stone, bedded in lime cement, about 2-1/4 m. long, 130 ft. broad at the base, and 12 ft. high. The stream is thus pent back so as to supply a volume of 3000 cubic ft. of water per second during its low season, and 12,000 cubic ft. at time of flood. The main canals have a total length of 493 m., irrigating 662,000 acres, and all navigable; and there are 1929 m. of distributary channels. In 1864 water-communication was opened between the deltas of the Godavari and Kistna. Rocky barriers and rapids obstruct navigation in the upper portion of the Godavari. Attempts have been made to construct canals round these barriers with little success, and the undertaking has been abandoned.

GODAVARI, a district of British India, in the north-east of the Madras presidency. It was remodelled in 1907-1908, when part of it was transferred to Kistna district. Its present area is 5634 sq. m. Its territory now lies mainly east of the Godavari river, including the entire delta, with a long narrow strip extending up its valley. The apex of the delta is at Dowlaishweram, where a great dam renders the waters available for irrigation. Between this point and the coast there is a vast extent of rice fields. Farther inland, and enclosing the valley of the great river, are low hills, steep and forest-clad. The north-eastern part, known as the Agency tract, is occupied by spurs of the Eastern Ghats. The coast is low, sandy and swampy, the sea very shallow, so that vessels must lie nearly 5 m. from Cocanada, the chief port. The Sabari is the principal tributary of the Godavari within the district. The Godavari often rises in destructive floods. The population of the present area in 1901 was 1,445,961. In the old district the increase during the last decade was 11%. The chief towns are Cocanada and Rajahmundry. The forests are of great value; coal is known, and graphite is worked. The population is principally occupied in agriculture, the principal crops being rice, oil-seeds, tobacco and sugar. The cigars known in England as Lunkas are partly made from tobacco grown on _lankas_ or islands in the river Godavari. Sugar (from the juice of the palmyra palm) and rum are made by European processes at Samalkot. The administrative headquarters are now at Cocanada, the chief seaport; but Rajahmundry, at the head of the delta, is the old capital. A large but decreasing trade is conducted at Cocanada, rice being shipped to Mauritius and Ceylon, and cotton and oil-seeds to Europe. Rice-cleaning mills have been established here and at other places. The district is traversed by the main line of the East Coast railway, with a branch to Cocanada; the iron girder bridge of forty-two spans over the Godavari river near Rajahmundry was opened in 1900. There is a government college at Rajahmundry, with a training college attached, and an aided college at Cocanada.

The Godavari district formed part of the Andhra division of Dravida, the north-west portion being subject to the Orissa kings, and the south-western belonging to the Vengi kingdom. For centuries it was the battlefield on which various chiefs fought for independence with varying success till the beginning of the 16th century, when the whole country may be said to have passed under Mahommedan power. At the conclusion of the struggle with the French in the Carnatic, Godavari with the Northern Circars was conquered by the English, and finally ceded by imperial _sanad_ in 1765. The district was constituted in 1859, by the redistribution of the territory comprising the former districts of Guntur, Rajahmundry and Masulipatam, into what are now the Kistna and Godavari districts.

See H. Morris, _District Manual_ (1878); _District Gazetteer_ (1906).

GODEFROY (GOTHOFREDUS), a French noble family, which numbered among its members several distinguished jurists and historians. The family claimed descent from Symon Godefroy, who was born at Mons about 1320 and was lord of Sapigneulx near Berry-au-bac, now in the department of Aisne.