528 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 45. 



animals on the point of flight. If the sheep are on a smooth slope near the top one 

 gets a shot of the second type by coming up hill from the other side. The moment 

 one's head appears above the sky line the sheep are off. The fact that the hills are 

 round topped and without a ridge makes the last moments of the stalk very uncom- 

 fortable. To compare this kind of sheep hunting with the pursuit of the bighorn in 

 North America one may say that the physical effort is far less in Mongolia than in North 

 America, but as a rule the final stalk is more difficult. The contrast between the 

 nature of the ground in the two countries may be brought out by the fact that it is 

 nearly always possible to bring horses directly up to the kill in Mongolia. 



To return to the narrative of the journey. On the first afternoon as we returned to 

 camp two rams came out on the sky line, but seeing us, departed. On the second 

 day going to the southwest saw a wolf at a great distance but nothing else. Weather 

 very cold with snow. The next day we broke camp and continued up the small 

 valley and over a low and inconspicuous pass, direction east of south. The Mongolian 

 line is probably near this pass; there is a great pile of stones but no stake. The country 

 ahead is high and rolling; to the west are a range of rugged peaks. After crossing a 

 height of land, which I take to be the Bain-Chagan Pass, we proceeded down a valley 

 east of south, and camped on a stream coming in from right, or west, side. March 4J 

 hours, say 11 miles. Saw two or three small sheep on hilltops after we had crossed 

 the pass. Our camp ground here had been much used by Kirghiz with their flocks. 

 The next day I tried for sheep both on the west and east sides of camp, but saw none. 

 There are a good number of heads in the valleys, on both sides, showing that rams 

 have been here, and recently. 



We continued the journey on July 5, and turned sharp to right around hills on which 

 I saw a gazelle. The view from these hills to the south and west is striking. The 

 country rapidly flattens out to the south and descends into a valley in which seems 

 to flow a stream. This is perhaps part of the Suok River system. On the other, south, 

 side of this valley high hills, or mountains, rise and extend as far as the eye can see. 

 To the west and south the valley is filled with large buttes of very characteristic and 

 pronounced shapes. Looking down on this part of the valley, the view reminded me 

 of a model of a great mountain system done on a small scale, or of a picture in a school 

 geography. Farther to the west and south, and a good way off, rose a range of high 

 mountains, some completely covered with snow. Later in the morning we came to 

 some water, apparently a branch of the Suok system, and there saw at least 100 ewes 

 and lambs, which came down off a hill and ran over the valley bottom. Saw too a small 

 ram. Having crossed a ridge, we turned due west, into what I am told is the Tayliike 

 Valley. We proceeded west up this valley about 3 miles and camped. Total dis- 

 tance since morning say 15 miles. 



The Tayliike Valley, in which we spent 16 days, runs at this point nearly east 

 and west. The valley bottom is perhaps 8,000 to 9,000 feet above sea. On the south 

 side it is bordered by grass-covered hills, which roll with lessening height into a 

 broad valley of a part of the Suok system. The hills on the north side of the Tay- 

 liike Valley roll back with increasing height to the boundary range. They are often 

 broken on one side and have a good deal of rock outcrop in places. Sheep were 

 found on both sides of the valley. They showed a preference, however, for the north 

 side. They were not plenty to the east of the place of our first camp, the hills being 

 stony and without much grass; and beyond a point 10 miles to the west they also 

 became scarce. Their range to the north is limited by the barrier mountains and to the 

 south by the Suok Plain. The extent of the range is thus very limited, for the dis- 

 tance from the Tayluke to the high barrier mountains is not more than 2 or 3 miles 

 at the place where the sheep abound. On this range, however, rams are very numer- 

 ous. Not a day passed that we did not see some. They go in bands of from 6 or 8 

 to 30 or 40. I counted one band of 40 rams. The ewes and lambs seem to be in the 

 lower country to the east. Besides one band seen on the march and already men- 

 tioned, I saw but one lot of perhaps 30 on the east of the range. 



