Chiefly owing to the dryness of climate, its physical characteristics are similar to those of Mongolia proper, except that the altitude of the plains is much lower.
Along the south-western border of this division of Mongolia a gigantic border-ridge, the Ektagh (or Mongolian) Altai, runs in an E.S.E.
South-eastern Mongolia is the part of Mongolia which lies on the eastern slope of the Great Khingan Mountains, entering like a wedge between the lower course of the Nonni river and the middle Sungari.
The area between the southern border of Siberia and the margin of the temperate alpine zone of the Himalaya and north China, comprising what are commonly called central Asia, Turkestan, Mongolia and western Manchuria, is an almost rainless region, having winters of extreme severity and summers of intense heat.
To Fakumen, thence through Mongolia to Pe-tu-na, and then to Tsi-tsi-har, Mergen, and the Amur.
Rockhill, Journey through Mongolia and Thibet (1894); F.
From Mongolia come leather, saddlery, sheep and horses, with coral, amber and small diamonds from European sources; from Kham perfumes, fruits, furs and inlaid metal saddlery; from Sikkim and Bhutan rice, musk, sugar-balls and tobacco; from Nepal broadcloth, indigo, brasswork, coral, pearls, sugar, spices, drugs and Indian manufactures; from Ladak saffron, dried fruits and articles from India.
De Koulomzine, Le Trans-siberien (Paris, 1904); Bishop of Norwich, My Life in Mongolia and Siberia (London, 1903); S.
Yet Tsaidam is geographically but a northern extension of the great Tibetan plateau, and in most of its essential physical features it is more closely allied to the Chang-t'ang of the south than to the great sandy depressions of Chinese Turkestan or Mongolia on the north.
He rode alone on horseback through Mongolia to western Siberia, and narrowly escaped being slaughtered by a mob.