~CLIMATE AND DIVISIONS OF MONGOLIA.~ The climate of Mongolia is excessively cold for the latitude, arising partly from its elevation and dry atmosphere, and, on the steppes, to the want of shelter from the winds. But this has its compensation in an unclouded sky and the genial rays of the sun, which support and cheer the people to exertion when the thermometer is far below zero. The air has been drained of its moisture by the ridges on every side; day after day the sun’s heat reaches the earth with smaller loss than obtains in moister regions in the same latitudes. Otherwise these wastes would support no life at all at such an elevation. In the districts bordering on Chihlí, the people make their houses partly under ground, in order to avoid the inclemency of the season. The soil in and upon the confines of this high land is unfit for agricultural purposes, neither snow nor rain falling in sufficient quantities, except on the acclivities of the mountain ranges; but millet, barley, and wheat might be raised north and south of it. The nomads rejoice in their freedom from tillage, however, and move about with their herds and possessions within the limits marked out by the Chinese for each tribe to occupy. The space on the north of Gobi to the confines of Russia, about one hundred and fifty miles wide, is warmer than the desert, and supports a greater population than the southern sides. Cattle are numerous on the hilly tracts, but none are found in the desert, where wild animals and birds hold undisputed possession. The thermometer in winter sinks to thirty and forty degrees below zero (Fr.), and sudden and great changes are frequent. No month in the year is free from snow or frost; but on the steppes, the heat in summer is almost intolerable, owing to the radiation from the sandy or stony surface. The snow does not fall very deep, and even in cold weather the cattle find food under it; the flocks and herds are not, however, large. The principal divisions of Mongolia are four, viz.: 1, Inner Mongolia, lying between the Wall and south of the desert; 2, Outer Mongolia, between the desert and the Altai Mountains, and reaching from the Inner Hing-an to the Tien shan; 3, the country about Koko-nor, between Kansuh, Sz’chuen, and Tibet; and, 4, the dependencies of Uliasutai, lying northwestward of the Kalkas khanates. The whole of this region has been included under the comprehensive name of Tartary, and if the limits of Inner and Outer Mongolia had been the bounds of Tartary, the appellation would have been somewhat appropriate. But when Genghis arose to power, he called his own tribe _Kukai Mongöl_, ‘Celestial People,’ and designated all the other tribes _Tatars_, that is ‘tributaries.’[105] The three tribes of Kalkas, Tsakhars, and Sunnites, now constitute the great body of Mongols under Chinese rule. ~TRIBES OF INNER MONGOLIA.~