THE BIG GAAIE OF WESTERN CHINA. 231 



through the mountains of eastern Tibet to the Pe-Hng and 

 Nan Shan ranges, and thence into Mongolia and Siberia. 

 Unfortunately, not having obtained a specimen we have no 

 proof for either assertion. It is fair to assume that bears 

 and other animals were to found in these wild mountains 

 in the summer, and that by penetrating a little farther in 

 towards the south west, we might have come across several 

 more species of precipice climbers. For the extent of un- 

 inhabited and uninhabitable countrj^ in these regions, and 

 the diversity of topographical features, must be seen to be 

 believed. Away from the Tow river however, in a direction 

 north-west from Tow-chow, the scene changes entirely, for 

 here the edge of the great grassland plateau which stretches 

 westwards in an unbroken succession of rolling steppes for 

 hundreds of miles, is reached. This plateau, in winter at 

 least, is the abomination of desolation, a wind-swept treeless 

 land of extreme temperatures, scorched by the summer sun. 

 frozen under the driving snowstorms for five months in the 

 j^ear. Here the marmot (Mannofcs species) and the Tibetan 

 hare — a beautiful little siver-grey fellow — scampered about 

 amongst their burrows which honey-combed the hillsides, 

 and a species of antelope (presumably a gazelle) wandered 

 in considerable herds, often twenty or more together, over 

 the barren steppes. We shot one antelope, a small russet- 

 brown creature not much bigger than the musk-deer, but 

 unfortunately it was a female, and therefore hornless. It is 

 quite likelj', however, that the aminal will prove to be the 

 goa or Tibetan gazelle {Gazeila picficaiidafa), but of this I 

 cannot be certain. 



Curiously enough, after 21st April, on which date we left 

 Min-chow for the south, passing abruptlj^ from winter into 

 summer with scarcely a break for spring, we saw no wild 

 animal larger than a fair-sized monkey. Not that there was 

 no big game in the mountains of the south, but rather that 

 considering the impenetrability of the vegetation, we thought 

 it scarcelj' worth while to spend the necessary time hunting, 

 and some of the most likely districts we were compelled to 

 pass through without stopping. I have sometimes wondered, 

 when reading of elephant hunting in equatorial Africa, how 

 the hunters are able to follow these animals through the 

 intricacies of the jungle, and come up with them after 

 perhaps several days' chase; for in western China it seemed 

 impossible to find anything, let alone follow it in the thickets 

 which clothed the mountains during the summer. But on 

 consideration we may note several points of difference in 

 the two cases. I recall the jungles of Borneo, and on 

 comparing them with the dense "bush" of western Szechwan 

 note that whilst there is no comparison in the exuberance 



