308 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Russian Turkestan and Western Siberia. Ehrenberg reports 

 (1831, p. 389) that Tigers are frequently observed on the Tarbagatai 

 Mountains southwest of Zaisan Nor; also that the Cossacks of the 

 Irtish have several times killed Tigers on the Kirghiz Steppe, spear- 

 ing them from horseback. 



"North of the Hindu Kosh, Tigers occur in Bokhara, and proved 

 troublesome to the Russian Surveying Expedition on the shores of 

 the Aral in midwinter. They are also found on the banks of the 

 Irtisch, and in the Altai region." (Blyth, 1863, p. 182.) 



Atkinson (1858, p. 282) mentions four specimens in the museum 

 at Barnaul, western Siberia. "The tigers were killed in Siberia at 

 different places, some at a distance of about five hundred versts 

 from Barnaoul ; they had come from the Kirghis Steppe, and crossed 

 the Irtisch into the Altai in the region around Bouchtarminsk. . . . 

 They are rarely found in Siberia; it is only when they are driven 

 from the steppe by hunger that they cross the Irtisch most prob- 

 ably when following the track of their prey : many peasants do not 

 even know them by name." Atkinson also reports (p. 486) many 

 Tigers about the western end of the Ala Tau, southeast of Lake 

 Balkash. 



According to Severtzoff (1876, p. 49), the Tiger "is common in 

 Turkestan, especially up to about 4000 feet altitude; but beyond 

 that it is rare in winter, and only in the summer does it visit localities 

 which are higher than 7000 feet." 



Carruthers writes (1915, pp. 149-150) : "In the same locality 

 [Oxus or Amu Darya Valley] inhabited by the Bokharan stags, 

 tigers are fairly numerous. These we know range the whole course 

 of the Oxus from the Sea of Aral to the foot of the mountains near 

 Kulab. They are seldom hunted or seen. I have good reason to 

 believe they wander across the desert from the Oxus to the lower 

 Zarafschan. The natives speak of them, and I am certain I heard 

 one one night in the saxaul forests which surround the swamps 

 where the river loses itself in the sands, and where large numbers of 

 wild pig roam." 



The British Museum has a skull from the vicinity of Find j eh, 

 on the Murghab (Pocock, 1929, p. 522). 



In Turkestan the Tiger reaches its northwestern limit at the 

 Gulf of Karabugas on the Caspian Sea, avoiding the Ust Urt Plateau. 

 It was formerly numerous on the Murghab and Tejend Rivers, the 

 last having been killed in that region in 1904. During a period of 

 some years prior to 1915 nine Tigers were killed in the Syr Darya 

 region. The species also occurs in the valley of the Chu and on the 

 Amu Darya delta. In 1887 it was reported as abundant on the lower 

 Hi River and on the southeastern shore of Lake Balkash; by 1930 

 its numbers in this region were few. There are old records from the 



