WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 83 



orderly Cossack attached to a Tatar chief as Russian 

 interpreter, furnished us with the substance of the 

 following notice : — 



" The tarpani form herds of several hundred, 

 divided into smaller troops, each headed by a stal- 

 lion ; they are not found unmixed, excepting 

 towards the borders of China ; they prefer wide, 

 open, elevated steppes, and always proceed in lines 

 or files, usually with the head to windward, moving 

 slowly forward while grazing — the stallions leading 

 and occasionally going round their own troop : 

 young stallions are often at some distance, and 

 single, because they are expelled by the older until 

 they can form a troop of young mares of their own ; 

 their heads are seldom observed to be down for any 

 length of time ; they utter now and then a kind of 

 snort, with a low neigh. . . . 



"These animals are found in the greatest purity 

 on the Karakoum (south of the lake of Aral) and 

 the Syr Daria, near Kusnek, and on the banks of 

 the river Tom, in the territory of the Kalkas, the 

 Mongolian deserts, and the solitudes of the Gobi ; 

 within the Russian frontier there are, however, some 

 adulterated herds in the vicinity of the fixed settle- 

 ments, distinguishable by the variety of their colour 

 and a selection of residence less remote from human 

 habitations. 



" Real tarpans are not larger than ordinary mules, 

 their colour invariably tan, Isabella, or mouse, 



