THE WHITE-BREASTED ARGAIJ. 201 



A young fat bull or a heifer is excellent eating-, 

 though inferior to the domesticated breed {sarlok) ; 

 but the flesh of old bulls is intolerably tough. 



We left the greater number of those \ve shot 

 untouched, having no use for the meat in Tibet. 

 The carcasses soon froze into a solid mass, the 

 tough hide resisting the vultures and wolves. On 

 our way back from the Blue River we saw them 

 lying exactly as we had left them. 



Another remarkable animal of Northern Tibet 

 is the white breasted argali (Ovis Poll ?), of equal 



Ovis PoLi after an engraving in SevertsofTs ' Turkestanskiya Jivotniya '). 



size with its Mongolian congener, but differing from 

 it in the horns, and in the white breast, which has a 

 frill of long hairs. We first saw these sheep beyond 

 the Burkhan Buddha, and afterwards as we pene- 

 trated farther into the country, but they are not 

 common. The Mongols assured us that they are 

 to be found in the South К око- nor range, and in 

 the Kan-su mountains near the sources of the 



