324 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



the increasing scarcity of even the Wild Camel east of Lob-nor, 

 owing perhaps to the increasing desiccation of the region. 



The animal must have been somewhat rare in the Altai region 

 even before the advent of Europeans. Atkinson (1858), who made 

 extensive explorations in that region about the middle of the past 

 century, and comments frequently on the other large animals, does 

 not refer to any personal encounter with the Wild Horse. However, 

 in a later work (I860, p. 325), he describes the Kirghiz method of 

 hunting "wild horses, which at this season [May] are found in 

 great herds near the foot of the mountains" beyond the Hi River, 

 apparently toward Issyk Kul. But his description of these horses 

 as "varying in colour from black, bay, grey and white" creates 

 considerable doubt as to whether they were truly wild or merely 

 feral. Possibly the herds were composed of a mixture of both kinds 

 of animals. Atkinson gives the Kirghiz name for the wild horse 

 as "muss." 



Brehm (1876, p. 339) received a report of a second kind of Wild 

 Horse (besides the Kulan), called "Surtake," which was said to 

 occur about 250 versts southeast of the boundary post of Zaisan, in 

 the Kanabo area. It was described as light yellow, with many light 

 spots and a shorter tail than the Kulan's. 



Younghusband, referring to the region about the southern base of 

 the eastern Altai, at about long. 96-100E., says (1888, p. 495) : 

 "We . . . saw here . . . wild horses too the Equus Prejevalskii 

 roaming about these great open plains." 



Ten years after Przewalski's discovery, the brothers Grum-Grshi- 

 mailo took some specimens in 1889 at the oasis of Gashun, northeast 

 of Guchen in eastern Dzungaria (Wrangel, 1908, vol. 1, p. 2) . 



The following report of Grum-Grshimailo (in Morgan, 1891, pp. 

 217-218) probably refers chiefly to the Gashun area: "Springs 

 enable the numerous animals inhabiting Dzungaria to exist; of 

 these the most interesting is Prejevalsky's horse. . . . Prejevalsky 

 himself, though he crossed the desert of Dzungaria in three several 

 directions, never came across any of these wild horses, and if he 

 wrote otherwise he was mistaking kulans he had seen in the distance 

 for wild horses, a mistake the most experienced hunters are liable 

 to make, for at that distance it is almost impossible to distinguish 

 between them. . . . We were the first Europeans who, for twenty 

 days, made a study of these interesting animals, adding the skins 

 of three handsome stallions and one mare to our collection." 



Salensky (1902, pp. 2-3) records specimens from the following 

 localities, chiefly in or near the Dzungarian Gobi: Gashun; the 

 Kobdo region; behind the Baitik-Bogdo (Charamelechetai) ; between 

 Nursu and Simigendse; Ebi Spring, near the Kobdo-Barkul route; 

 Guchen Lake; and the River Bulunga. He gives the range (p. 63) as 



