st the aquatic plants;
but as we have before observed, the flesh of wild creatures is not at all
to the taste of the Tartars; there is nothing to their palates at all
comparable with a joint of mutton, very fat and half boiled.

The Mongols are equally disinclined to fishing; and accordingly, the
highly productive lakes and ponds which one meets with so frequently in
Tartary, have become the property of Chinese speculators, who, with the
characteristic knavery of their nation, having first obtained from the
Tartar kings permission to fish in their states, have gradually converted
this toleration into a monopoly most rigorously enforced. The Paga-Gol
(Little River), near which we were now encamped, has several Chinese
fishing stations upon its banks. This Paga-Gol is formed by the junction
of two rivers, which, taking their source from the two sides of a hill,
flow in opposite directions; the one, running towards the north, falls
into the Yellow River; the other, proceeding southwards, swells the
current of another stream, which itself also falls into the Hoang-Ho; but
at the time of the great inundations, the two rivers, in common with the
hill which separates their course, all alike disappear. The overflowing
of the Hoang-Ho reunites the two currents, and that which then presents
itself is a large expanse of water, the breadth of which extends to
nearly two miles. At this period, the fish which abound in the Yellow
River repair in shoals to this new basin, wherein the waters remain
collected until the commencement of the winter; and during the autumn,
this little sea is covered in all directions with the boats of Chinese
fishermen, whose habitations for the fishing season are miserable cabins
constructed on either bank.

During the first night of our encampment in this locality, we were kept
awake by a strange noise, constantly recurring in the distance: as it
seemed to us, the muffled and irregular roll of drums; with day-break the
noise continued, but more intermittent and less loud; it apparently came
from the water. We went out and proceeded towards the bank of the lake,
where a fisherman, who was boiling his tea in a little kettle, supported
by three stones, explained the mystery; he told us that during the night,
all the fishermen seated in their barks, keep moving over the water, in
all directions, beating wooden drums for the purpose of alarming the
fish, and driving them towards the places where the nets