APPENDIX. 



The Big Game of Western China. 



Whilst sportsmen have turned their attention to most 

 parts of the globe, and in pursuit of big game have penetrated 

 into the uttermost parts of Africa, throughout North America, 

 the Indian Empire, Kashmir, Burma and the Malay States, 

 China has for several reasons remained almost a terra 

 incognita to the hunter, who can rarely give first hand 

 information, if any, concerning the game to be found in the 

 west of the Middle Kingdom. Indeed there are vast tracts, 

 and perhaps will always be vast tracts, in the centre of this 

 wonderful old continent which can be visited only by a few, 

 and those not on pleasure bent. The enormous distances to 

 be traversed and the difficulties of travel, the attitude of the 

 Government in the past, and the considerable expense and 

 time involved, have all contributed to deter sportsmen from 

 roaming over the country, and it may be interesting therefore 

 to say something of the big game which is to be found in 

 these mountains which have few attractions to any but those 

 who go there for purposes other than pleasure. And first a 

 few words about the physical features of the far west, which 

 of course, in topographical details, varies considerably. 



From the high plateau region of Koko-Nor province (a 

 part of Amdoa, Outer Tibet) there stretches eastwards 

 through Kansu, Shensi, and thence into Honan a high range 

 of mountains, known in Kansu as the Pe-ling, and east of 

 that province as the Sin-ling range; and this forms the 

 natural barrierbetween northern and southern China,between 

 the basin of the Yellow River and the Yangtze which it 

 separates for several hundred miles. To the south, forming 

 a natural division between the provinces of Kansu and 

 Shensi in the north and Szechwan in the south, a second 

 rather lower range extends eastward from the plateau, 

 becoming broken up in the province of Hupeh. Both these 

 ridges rise to considerably greater altitudes in the west, 

 where they strike off from the plateau, than further east, and 

 they are also far more thickly forested as one reaches their 

 western limits. Decreasing in height and extent as they 

 stretch eastwards, they eventually fray out and descend 

 gradually into the eastern plain. Still further south, in 



