Across the Roof of the World. 



however, impress me as being wild sheep ground at all, 

 as the hills were very low, only rising some 50 to 100 feet 

 above the level of the plain, and not at all indicative of their 

 haunts. 



After a march of 18 miles I reached a karaul where there 

 was a small post of Mongol soldiers, put there as the outward 

 and visible sign of Chinese occupancy. These men were armed 

 with old-fashioned guns, dirt and rust eaten, but they were a 

 jolly set of people and presented me with a sheep, besides assisting 

 to pitch camp. 



The Mongols inhabiting this part of Asia, so far removed 

 beyond the pale of civilisation, are primitive to a degree, paying 

 no attention to the outer world and the mighty questions con- 

 vulsing it. Their astonishment at my kit was great, for they 

 told me they had never seen such articles before, and the 

 production of patent camp furniture and cooking appliances 

 completely passed their understanding. 



I started on the morning of November 24th for the argali 

 ground, accompanied by the Mongol shikari and a man from the 

 karaul. Our way led through low lying hills covered with 

 stunted scrub and wormwood. From the ridges of these hills 

 one could get a good idea of the surrounding country, which 

 resembles a sea of rounded knolls of an average height of 50 to 

 100 feet, intersected by little valleys, ravines and open stretches. 

 There was scarcely any grass, the surface of the hills being strewn 

 with rock and gravel. I camped some 12 miles out in the bed 

 of an ancient stream which in days gone by must have been a 

 large waterway but was now merely a stony level covered sparsely 

 with brushwood to a height of three or four feet. 



In the late afternoon I went out in the hope of seeing some 



of the sheep, and did, to my considerable surprise, come across a 



very fair ram. During the march that day we had not seen 



tracks nor any sign whatever that they were in the neighbourhood, 



so I consequently had begun to think their existence was a 



phantom one. 



322 



