As the Gobi desert is approached the forests disappear, the ground becomes covered chiefly with dry Gramineae, and Salsolaceae make their appearance.
The former, belonging to the Khalkas, occupy the Gobi and the regions of the Kentei Mountains and Khingan Mountains, while the second, divided into numerous minor branches, roam over south-eastern and southern Mongolia.
It appears to be a rule that the rivers which eventually terminate in the deserts of Gobi and Takla-makan grow increasingly larger in magnitude from east to west.
The "master of the law," as his biographers call him, plunged alone into the terrible desert of the Gobi, then known as the Sha-mo or "Sand River," between Kwa-chow and Igu (now Hami or Kamil).
On the whole, we may say that the arctic and boreal faunas of Europe extend over Siberia, with a few additional species in the Ural and Baraba region - a number of new species also appearing in East Siberia, some spreading along the high plateau and others along the lower plateau from the steppes of the Gobi.
