NO. 1990. MAMMALS FROM THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS— HOLLISTER. 529 



An average adult ram will carry horns about 19 to 19^ inches at the butt, and 46 to 

 48 inches round the curl. Sheep of this size are very com m on. A few larger heads 

 are to be found in nearly every band; very large heads are of course rarer. I regret 

 that I took no body measiirements of sheep. It is safe to say that the animal has 

 a larger body than the average bighorn ram; but it is also certain that the increase 

 in body is not in proportion to the increase in head. In the Ovis ammon the head 

 is out of all proportion to the body. At a distance at this season (July) the rams 

 appear to be of two rather distinct colors — yellowish and black. Near to, the color 

 difference is not so noticeable. It is a characteristic perhaps due to the limited 

 extent of the range that the rams will return time after time to a particular mountain 

 top after they have been driven from it. When alarmed they never hesitate, but 

 dash away until out of rifle shot. Their sight is keener than that of any animal I 

 know. A black servant who accompanied an English sportsman into this region 

 this summer told our men that he had been with the original Demidoff party in 1897, 

 and that then the sheep were tame and comparatively easy to kill. An idea of the 

 number of sheep may be got from the fact that in 15 days' hunting I shot four rams, 

 wounded two, and missed three shots. The number of shots in proportion to the 

 sheep seen was due to the great skill of my head hunter, Yambai, in stalking. It is 

 to be noted that these rams are extremely tough. In my experience they will go 

 farther when mortally hurt than almost any animal I ever saw. 



The weather in the valley was bad. About July 8 there were three days when it 

 was unpleasantly warm at noontime; for the rest of the time it was impleasantly cold. 

 There were few days of continual storm, but there was hardly a day that it did not 

 hail, rain, or snow. The very sudden changes from hot to cold were very trying. 

 If the altitude of the valley is taken at 8,500 feet, that of the hills on which the sheep 

 are found may vary from 9,000 to 11,000 feet. On the hills, often near the tops, I 

 found maral horns, but never a skull. The horns seemed very old. It is to be remem- 

 bered that there is not a trace of timber in this whole region. Throughout the valley 

 there are signs that it is visited by natives with considerable flocks at some season, 

 but we saw only one party of Kirghiz or Kalmuks, who had got lost trying to cross 

 the frontier, and another party of horsemen, seen at a distance. The number of 

 sheepskins on sale at Kosh-Agatch makes it probable that the natives kill a good 

 many in winter, perhaps in^this valley bottom. 



I made only two camps in the valley, the last some 6 mUes west of the first. On^ 

 July 22 moved west of north. Three hours' march took us over a steep pass, the 

 Tarkuta, and down into the valley on the other side. On the north side of the pass 

 sheep heads suddenly ceased. It seems pretty certain that the animals in the Tay- 

 liike Valley do not cross this divide. The hills in the valley where we camped are 

 more broken than those on the Mongolian side, being covered with rock slides on 

 many of their faces, but their tops are grassy and suitable for sheep. In fact, there 

 is nothing to account for the absence of sheep. 



CAPRA SIBnUCA FASCIATA Noack. 



1902. Capra fasciata Noack, Zool. Anz., vol. 25, p. 623. 



1905. Capra sihirica fasciata Trouessart, Cat. Mamm., Suppl., vol. 3, p. 738. 



The type-locality of this ibex is on the Bia Kiver, near Lake 

 Teletzkoi, about 70 miles north of Kosh-Agatch. The animal is 

 reported as common throughout the mountains in that vicinity, and 

 numbers of heads and hides are traded at Kosh-Agatch. We were 

 told of the presence of ibex in the mountains near Chibit, on the post 

 road between Kosh-Agatch and Ust-Inya ; and one of our men reported 

 seeing one in the mountains near our Tapucha camp, August 7. A 



80459°— Proc.N.M.vol.4&— 13 34 



