RETURN TO DIN-YUAN-IXG. 269 



their last desperate extremity. They sHpped down 

 the side of the chff, and jumped from a ledge eighty 

 feet high. 



Besides the Ala-shan mountains, the mountain 

 sheep are found in great numbers in the range 

 bounding the valley on the left bank of the northern 

 bend of the Hoang-ho, but they do not inhabit 

 the Munni-ula, or the other more northerly moun- 

 tains of Mongolia. Towards the south this animal 

 is very often met with in the mountains round Lake 

 Koko-nor and in Northern Tibet, but here it as- 

 sumes a different shape, and may be a separate 

 species. 



After a fortnight's stay in the Ala-shan moun- 

 tains, we returned to Din-yuan-ing ; here we deter- 

 mined to retrace our steps to Peking, in order to 

 obtain fresh supplies of money, and other necessaries 

 for a new journey. Unpleasant as it was, we were 

 obliged to give up our intended journey to Lake 

 Koko-nor, which was only 400 miles distant, i.e. 

 less than a month's journey. Notwithstanding all 

 our care, amounting almost to stinginess, луе had 

 less than a hundred lans (20/.) left in money on 

 entering Ala-shan, and it was only by selling our 

 merchandise and two guns that we could get enough 

 money for the return journey ; our Cossacks, too, 

 proved untrustworthy and lazy, and Avith such a 

 staff we could not undertake a new journey more 

 difficult and dangerous than the one we had accom- 

 plished. Lastly, my passport from Peking only 

 allowed me to <^о as far as Kan-sii, and we mioht. 

 therefore, be refused admittance to that province. 



