358 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



and from time to time troops swam that river and made their ap- 

 pearance in the Waldinsel Steppe." (Lydekker, 1912, p. 185.) 



Pallas gives the following account in 1780 (pp. 261, 273). Kulans 

 are still very numerous in the deserts of Tatary, and come annually 

 to spread over the mountainous deserts east and north of the Aral 

 Sea, where they pass the summer and assemble in autumn by hun- 

 dreds and even thousands for their return toward India, for a winter 

 asylum. They scarcely pass beyond lat. 48 N. The skins are 

 sought by the residents of Bokhara for preparation in the manner 

 of shagreen. 



Hablizl states (1783, p. 93) that the Wild Ass is rarely found in 

 Astrabad and Mazanderan, Persia. (The animal of this Caspian 

 region was probably the Turkestan form rather than the Persian.) 



In 1840 (p. 56) Eversmmann records several recent specimens 

 from the steppes between the Caspian and the Aral Seas. 



Ladyjensky (1841, pp. 361-362) speaks of sending to Moscow a 

 Wild Ass captured when young in the vicinity of Aktava in the 

 Kirghiz Steppe, in the extreme southern part of the old district of 

 Omsk. In this region, he adds, the Wild Asses are found in numerous 

 troops, which are composed sometimes of more than a thousand 

 head and raise a thick cloud of dust in moving across the steppe. 

 The Kirghiz have not yet found the means of taking the young ones 

 alive. 



Severtzoff writes (1876, p. 387) that Equus hemionus "is rather 

 rare in Turkestan, and to be found only about the Karatau moun- 

 tains and near the rivers Aris, Keless, Chirchik, and the delta of the 

 Sir-Darja, and even there only during the winter." 



In 1881 (p. 22) Poliakof refers to the Kulan as having been numer- 

 ous not long since in the environs of Lake Balkash. "In my last 

 excursion to Balkash, during several days passed in its solitudes I 

 did not observe a kulan, and only saw the tracks of one imprinted 

 on the saline soil." 



According to Radde and Walter (1889, p. 1058) , it still inhabited 

 at that time the entire Turkoman Steppes in considerable numbers, 

 but had retreated from the Transcaspian railway and the new mili- 

 tary posts farther into the undisturbed deserts. At the beginning of 

 the construction large herds were often observed near the railway in 

 the vicinity of Kazanjik and Dushakh, but later disappeared. It 

 was considered more numerous in the steppes north of the Atrek 

 River and also along the Afghanistan boundary in the hilly desert 

 between the Tejend and the Murghab. Here Walter saw many in 

 1887. While the European hunter rarely had success, the Saryk 

 Turkoman managed to approach within gun range of the animals by 

 taking cover behind a carefully maneuvered camel. The flesh was 



