NO. 30 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, [QI: 



is the frequent occurrence of electrical hail storms. The severity of 

 these storms and the display of electricity accompanying them is 

 terrific. During the entire trip the party enjoyed only three days 

 without rain or snow. The average altitude of camps here was from 

 8,500 to 9,000 feet, and above this plane the mountains rise to snow 

 and glacier covered peaks of 12,000 feet or more. The country is 

 wild, barren, and desolate: and the only inhabitants, the nomadic 

 Kirghiz and Kalmuks, are engaged in following their herds of yaks, 

 Ik irses, and s:oats. 



Fig. in. — Skull of a wild sheep, collected on the Altai expedition 

 Doctor Lyman. Photograph by the National Museum. 



( )n the return trip, stops were made on the Chuisaya Steppe and in 

 the heavily forested Altais between the desert and the great Siberian 

 plains. Three different physiographical regions are represented in 

 the collections, which include an almost complete series of the mam- 

 mals and birds of this little-known part of central Asia. Chief 

 among the specimens of great game are four fine rams of Oi'is 

 amnion, the largest of all wild sheep. There are also .specimens of 

 two species of ibex and a gazelle. Thirteen forms of mammals col- 

 lected are new to science, and some twenty others taken were not 

 before represented in the collections of the National Museum. Tn 

 all. about 650 mammals and birds were secured, and will be divided 

 between the two institutions concerned. 



