ORDER ARTIODACTYLA I EVEN -TOED UNGULATES 



681 



for the horns, which will fetch as much as four or five hundred gold roubles 

 a pair, say, forty to fifty guineas; they are sold in China .... 



I have kept saigas in captivity; they quickly become tame if caught young, 

 and will breed in captivity. It would pay to breed them in the steppe, 

 just as they do with marals for the same market. . . . 



In the steppes around [Lake Balkash] there are herds of ... saiga. 



W. G. Heptner writes (in litt., December, 1936) : "At the begin- 

 of the 19th century the Saigas were still found in the whole 



ning 



FIG. 62. Saiga (Saiga tatarica). After Brehm. 



steppe region, from the Don to the Chinese frontier, and they were 

 very numerous. About the middle of the last century a great num- 

 ber existed on the steppes south of Orenburg and quite near this 

 town. The Saiga is now almost exterminated, and hunting is com- 

 pletely forbidden. The reason for this destruction is the high price 

 of the horns, which were exported kugreat quantities to China for 

 medicinal use. In the time of sailing vessels the horns were also 

 used for rigging works, as sewing implements. The Saiga now exists 

 in the Kalmuk steppes, in the region between the Volga and the 

 Ural, and in scattered numbers in Kazakstan (including Semi- 



