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See also:GOBI (for which alternative See also:Chinese names are SHA-MO, " See also:sand See also:desert," and HAN-See also:HAI, " dry See also:sea ") , a See also:term which in its widest significance means the See also:long stretch of See also:desert See also:country that extends from the See also:foot of the See also:Pamirs, in about 770 E., eastward to the See also:Great See also:Khingan Mountains, in 116°-118° E., on the border of See also:Manchuria, and from the foothills of the See also:Altai, the Sayan and the See also: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 See also:south . By conventional usage a relatively small See also:area on the See also:east See also:side of the Great Khingan, between the upper See also:waters of the Sungari and the upper waters of the Liao-ho, is also reckoned to belong to the See also:Gobi . On the other See also:hand, geographers and See also:Asiatic explorers prefer to regard the W. extremity of the Gobi region (as defined above), namely, the See also:basin of the See also:Tarim in E . See also:Turkestan, as forming a See also:separate and See also:independent desert, to which they have given the name of Takla-makan . The latter restriction governs the See also:present See also:article, which accordingly excludes the Takla-makan, leaving it for separate treatment . The desert of Gobi as a whole is only very imperfectly known, See also: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 See also:Polo (1273—1275), Gerbillon (1688—1698), Ijsbrand Ides (1692—1694), See also:Lange (1727—1728 and 1736), Fuss and Bunge (1830—1831), Fritsche (1868—1873), Pavlinov and Matusovski (1870), See also:Ney See also:Elias (1872—1873), N . M . Przhevalsky (1870—1872 and 1876—1877), Zosnovsky (1875), M . V . Pjevtsov (1878), G . N . Potanin (1877 and 1884—1886), See also:Count See also:Szechenyi and L. von Loczy (1879—188o), the See also:brothers Grum-Grzhimailo (1889—189o), P . K . See also: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 See also:part of the gigantic depression which fills the interior of the See also:lower See also:terrace of the vast Mongolian See also:plateau, and See also:measures over r000 m. from S.W. to N.E. and 45o to 600 m. from N. to S., being widest in the See also:west, along the See also:line joining the Baghrash-kol and the Lop-nor (87°-89° E.) . Owing to the immense area covered, and the piecemeal See also:character of the information, no See also:general description can be made applicable to the whole of the Gobi . It will be more convenient, therefore, to describe its See also:principal distinctive sections seriatim, beginning in the west . Ghashiun-Gobi and Kuruk-tagh.—The Yulduz valley or valley of the Khaidyk-gol (83°-86° E., 43° N.) is enclosed by two prominent members of the Tian-shan See also:system, namely the Chol-tagh and the Kuruk-tagh, See also:running parallel and See also:close to one another . As they proceed eastward they diverge, sweeping back on N. and S. respectively so as to leave See also:room for the Baghrash-kol . These two ranges See also:mark the See also:northern and the See also:southern edges respectively of a great swelling, which extends eastward for nearly twenty degrees of See also:longitude . On its northern side the Chol-tagh descends steeply, and itsfoot isfringed by a See also:string of deep depressions, ranging from Lukchun (425 ft. below the level of the See also:sea) to See also:Hami (2800 ft. above sea-level) . To the south of the Kuruk-tagh See also:lie the desert of Lop, the desert of See also:Kum-tagh, and the valley of the Bulunzir-gol . To this great swelling, which See also:arches up between the two border-ranges of the Chol-tagh and Kuruk-tagh, the See also:Mongols give the name of Ghashiun-Gobi or See also:Salt Desert . It is some 8o to See also:ioo m. across from N. to S., and is traversed by a number of See also:minor parallel ranges, ridges and chains of trills, and down its See also:middle runs a broad stony valley, 25 to 50 M. wide, at an See also:elevation of 3000 to 4500 ft . The Chol-tagh, which reaches an See also:average See also:altitude of 6000 ft., is absolutely sterile, and its northern foot rests upon a narrow See also:belt of barren See also:sand, which leads down to the depressions mentioned above . The Kuruk-tagh is the greatly disintegrated, denuded and wasted relic of a See also: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, See also:divide the region into a See also: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 See also:ridge, a .cauldron-shaped depression, which some See also:time or other has been the bottom of a former See also:lake, but is now nearly a dry salt-basin
.
The See also:surface configuration is in fact markedly similar to that which occurs in the inter-mont latitudinal valleys of the Kuen-lun
.
The See also: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, See also:cross them diagonally and only turn west after they have cut their way through one or more of the trans-See also:verse barrier ranges
?
To the highest range on the great swelling Gruni-Grzhimailo gives the name of Tuge-tau, its altitude being 9000 ft. above the level of the sea and some 4000 ft. above the See also:crown of the swelling itself
.
This range he considers to belong to the Choltagh system, whereas Sven Hedin would assign it to the Kuruk-tagh
.
This last, which is See also:pretty certainly identical with the range of Kharateken-ula (also known as the Kyzyl-sanghir, Sinir, and Singher Mountains), that overlooks the southern See also:shore of the Baghrash-kol, though parted from it by the See also:drift-sand desert of Ak-See also:bel-kum (See also: The characteristic features of this almost dead level or but slightly undulating region are: (i.) broad, unbroken expanses of See also:clay intermingled with sand, the clay (See also:shoe) being indurated and saliferous and often arranged in terraces; (ii.) hard, level, clay expanses, more or less thickly sprinkled with See also:fine See also:gravel (say), the clay being mostly of a yellow or yellow-See also:grey See also:colour; (iii.) benches, flattened ridges and See also:tabular masses of consolidated clay (jardangs), arranged in distinctly defined laminae, three stories being sometimes superimposed one upon the other, and their See also:vertical faces being abraded, and often undercut, by the See also: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 See also:absence of drift-sand and sand-See also:dunes, except in the south, towards the out-lying 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 See also:bare of sand by the terrific sand-storms (burans) of the See also: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 See also: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 See also:appearance, traces of former lacustrine shore-lines, more or less parallel and concentric, the presence in places of vast quantities of fresh-See also:water mollusc shells (See also:species of Lirnnaea and Planorbis), the existence of belts of dead poplars, patches of dead tamarisks and extensive beds of withered reeds, all these always on See also: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 fresh-water lakes, now of course completely desiccated . During the prevalence of the spring storms the See also:atmosphere that overhangs the immediate surface of the desert is so heavily charged with dust as to be a veritable See also:pall of desolation . Except for the wild See also:camel which frequents the See also: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-t¢ h.—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 See also:north-eastwards as far as the vicinity of the See also:town of Sa-chow and the lake of Kara-nor or Kala-chi . Its southern rim is marked by a See also:labyrinth of hills, dotted in See also:groups and irregular clusters, but evidently survivals of two parallel ranges which are now worn down as it were to See also: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 See also:plants of the usual character maintain a See also: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 See also:half-way up the flanks of ranges themselves . The prevailing winds in this region would appear to See also:blow from the W. and N.W. during the summer, See also: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 See also:law laid down by Potanin, that in the basins of Central See also:Asia the sand is heaped up in greater See also:mass on the south, all along the bordering mountain ranges where the See also: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 :2 The first See also:zone of drift-sand is succeeded by a region which exhibits proofs of wind-modelling on an extraordinarily energetic and well See also:developed See also: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 See also: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, See also:sharp-cut clay terraces .. . . At the points where we measured them the northern terrace was 113 ft. high and the southern 854 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 See also:flat valley or immense river-See also:bed." 2 Quoted in Sven Hedin, Scientific Results, ii: 499 . 30P . Cit. ii . 499-500 . '' Cf . G . E . Grum-Grzhimailo, Opisaniye Puteshestviya, i . 381-417 . 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 See also: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, 8o m. across, which reaches an average elevation of 5000 ft. and a maximum elevation of 5500 ft . On its northern and southern See also: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 See also:division and the Karlyk-tagh range or E . Tian-shan intervenes a somewhat undulating barren See also: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 See also:oasis of Hami (2800 ft.) . Similarly from the southern division of the Bey-san a second plain slopes down for woo ft. to the valley of the river Bulunzir or Su-lai-ho, which comes out of See also:China, from the south side of the Great See also:Wall, and finally empties itself into the lake of Kalachi 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 See also: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 (too to 300 ft.), scattered without any regard to See also:order over the See also:arch of the swelling . They nowhere rise into well-defined peaks . Their See also: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.' 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 . See also:Mongolia farther east, through the effects of See also:century-long insolation, wind erosion, great and sudden changes of temperature, chemical See also:action and occasional water erosion . Vast areas towards the N. consist of expanses of gently sloping (at a mean slope of 3°) 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 See also:crow and the See also: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 See also: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 See also:Chinese provinces of Shen-si and Shan-s1, where it is deposited as See also: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 See also:cold and often brings See also:snow, though it speedily clears the See also:air of the See also:everlasting dust haze . In summer great See also: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 See also:rivers from the Tian-shan ranges (e.g. the Karlyk-tagh) on the N. and from the Nanshan on the S., and have filled up the cauldron-shaped valleys, there rises a broad swelling, built up of granitic rocks, crystalline See also:schists and metamorphosed sedimentary rocks of both Archaic and Palaeozoic See also: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 Przhevalsky, Iz Zayana cherez Hami v See also:Tibet na Vershovya See also:Shelley Rekt, pp . 84-91.ranges of the Pe-shan system, together with a fifth See also: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 See also:absolute altitude of 7200 ft., while the fifth chain of hills does not exceed 65o 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 See also:Tertiary sea of the Han-See also: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 See also:recent See also:geological times no large sea has occupied the central part of the Gobi . Beyond an occasional visit from a See also:band of See also:nomad Mongols, this region of the Pe-shan swelling is entirely uninhabited.2 And yet it was from this very region, avers G . E . Grum-Grzhimailo, that the Yue-chi, a nomad See also:race akin to the Tibetans, proceeded when, towards the middle of the 2nd century n.c., they moved westwards and settled near Lake Issyk-kul; and from here proceeded also the Shanshani, or See also:people who some two thousand years ago founded the See also:state of Shanshan or See also:Lou-lan, ruins of the See also:chief town of which Sven Hedin discovered in the desert of Lop in 1901 . Here, says the See also:Russian explorer, the See also:Huns gathered strength, as also did the Tukiu (See also:Turks) in the 6th century, and the See also:Uighur tribes and the rulers of the Tangut See also:kingdom . But after Jenghiz See also:Khan in the See also:lath century See also:drew away the peoples of this region, and no others came to take their See also:place, the country went out of cultivation and eventually became the barren desert it now is.3 See also: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. See also: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 See also:province of Kan-suh by the narrow rocky chain of See also:Lung-shag (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 See also: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 See also:miles there is nothing to be seen but bare sands; in some places they continue so far without a break that the Mongols See also:call them Tyngheri (i.e. See also: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 See also:shingle . Although on the whole a level country with a general altitude pf 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 moo ft. higher .
The vegetation is confined to a few varieties of bushes and a dozen kinds of See also:grasses, the most conspicuous being saxaul and Agriophyllum gobicum4 (a grass)
.
The others include prickly convolvulus, See also: 3 G . E . Grum-Grzhimailo, Opisanie Puteshestviya v Sapadniy Kitai, p . 127 . ' Its seeds are pounded by the Mongols to See also:flour and mixed with their See also:tea . Przhevalsky, Mongolia(Eng. trans. ed. by See also:Sir H . See also:Yule) . 6 Przhevalsky, op. cit. p . 183 . 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 See also: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 See also:pro-ducts 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 See also:laws to the rivers and streams which carry down sediment in moister parts of the See also:world . Potanin points out 2 that " there is a certain amount of regularity observable in the See also: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 See also:drawn from north-east to south-west, from See also:Urga via the eastern end of the Tian-shan to the See also:city of See also: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 See also:case with the lakes of See also:Balkash, Ala-kul, Ebi-nor, Ayar-nor (or Telli-nor), Orku-nor, See also:Zaisan-nor, Ulungur-nor, Ubsa-nor, See also:Durga-nor and Kara-nor lying E. of See also: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 See also:Khotan, Keriya and See also:Cherchen to Sa-chow . Along this stretch there is only one locality which forms an exception to the See also: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 See also:latitude (42° 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 See also:district of Ude in the north (44° 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 rn which men formerly dwelt . These regions are the southern parts of the desert of Takla-makan (where Sven Hedin and M . A . See also:Stein 8 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-Ian and of other towns or villages . For these vast accumulations of sand are constantly in See also: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 16o ft. in the course of a See also:year . The shape and arrangement of the individual sand-dunes, and of the barkhans, generally indicate from which direction See also:alb predominant winds blow . On the windward side of the dune the slope is long and See also:gentle, while the leeward side is steep and in outline See also:concave like a See also:horse-shoe . The dunes vary in height from 30 up to 300 ft., and in some places See also:mount as it were upon one another's shoulders, and in some localities it is even said that a third tier is sometimes superimposed . |
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