Unknown Mongolia : a record of travel and exploration in north-west Mongolia and Dzungaria . to the low-lying Ubsa and KirghizNor basins, most favourably situated winter , a small settlement on the south-west of theUbsa Nor, is the main winter resort of subjects of theWang, and, being on the direct route between Kobdo andthe Yenisei region in Siberia, has additional importancedue to the passing of a certain amount of traffic. Ulankom,according to all accounts—for we did not visit it—is animportant centre of trade of the whole of the Ubsa basin,which includes the well-populated v
Unknown Mongolia : a record of travel and exploration in north-west Mongolia and Dzungaria . to the low-lying Ubsa and KirghizNor basins, most favourably situated winter , a small settlement on the south-west of theUbsa Nor, is the main winter resort of subjects of theWang, and, being on the direct route between Kobdo andthe Yenisei region in Siberia, has additional importancedue to the passing of a certain amount of traffic. Ulankom,according to all accounts—for we did not visit it—is animportant centre of trade of the whole of the Ubsa basin,which includes the well-populated valley of the Tess, aswell as the Durbet encampments. It lies in a regionwhich supports a considerable nomadic population, andit has no rival trading-posts nearer than Kobdo orUliassutai. Ulankom is therefore of economic import-ance, which importance might immeasurably increase,if the trade-route connecting it with the Yenisei pro-vince, by way of the Kemchik and Abakan Valleys, wereimproved and opened up for the use of enterprisingtraders. Potanin remarks that it possesses one of the. THE TURGUN HIGHLANDS 275 largest cemeteries of old tombs and burial-mounds inMongolia, proving that this locality must always havebeen a centre of Mongol life. At the present day Ulankom is the haunt of a fewChinese and Russian traders as well as of the Durbetpopulation, which is larger in winter than it is in summer,for the nomads in winter concentrate on the low, andcomparatively warm, shores of Lake Ubsa, where thesaline pasture affords winter fodder for their presence of the houses belonging to these traders,and the residence of the Durbet Wang—a house built onChinese lines—raises Ulankom to the station of a townin the eyes of the tent-dwelling nomads. There is plentyof water, for the drainage of the glaciers and snow-fieldsof the Turgun, which sinks below the surface of theground on leaving the mountains, at this point oozesup and forms fine meadows and marsh-lands. A smalla
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecthunting, bookyear1914
