Marco Polo's Sheep 19 



the sheep called by Mr. Sclater Oris arkar is the present species or O. amnion. 

 On the one hand, arkar is the Turki name oi O. poll, but, on the other, the 

 skulls mentioned by Mr. Sclater were reported to have come h'om the 

 Altai. 



Distrihiition. — From the Thian Shan and the plateau north of Hunza 

 through the Semirechinsk Altai and the Pamirs to the valley of the 

 upper Amu Daria, or Oxus. By Prezewalski it has been recorded trom 

 the Altyn-tag, to the south of the Gobi, but this reference is very doubtful, 

 and it is probable in that district its place is taken by a member of the 

 atnnion gvo\\\^. The definitely known distributional area is therefore situated 

 on the western border of the hollow ellipse occupied by the amnion group, 

 the typical and most highly specialised race inhabiting the extreme western 

 portion of the area, and the less modified Thian Shan form occurring in the 

 country between the Pamir race and the typical O. amnion. 



History. — Although met with by Marco Polo during his Asiatic 

 journeys, this sheep was tirst definitely made known to European science 

 by skulls obtained by Lieutenant Wood, R.N., in 1S38, on his return 

 from his journey to the source of the Amu Daria, when detached 

 from Sir Alexander Burne's Mission to the Court of Cabul. These 

 specimens, one of which is preserved in the British Museum, and 

 the other in the Royal College of Surgeons, were obtained on 

 the high plateau near Lake Siri Kol, at an elevation of about 16,000 

 feet above the sea-level, and apparently from near the same locality 

 as the one mentioned by Marco Polo. Two years after their discovery 

 the species to which they belonged was named O. po/i by Blyth. 

 So far as I am aware, nothing more was known in England with regard 

 to the species till the return of the Second Yarkand Expedition in 1874, 

 when several skulls of the typical Pamir race, and also skins trom the 

 Thian Shan, then regarded as belonging to the same form, were brought 

 home. Some of these skins were described by Dr. Stoliczka as the true 



