THE HURKU HILLS. WILD GOAT. 275 



the west they extend, with a few interruptions, to 

 other far distant mountains of no great elevation. 

 If the latter statement may be relied upon, we may 

 conclude that they unite with the Thian Shan, and 

 supply, as it were, a connecting" link between that 

 range and the In-shan system ; an extremely inter- 

 esting fact and one worthy the attention of future 

 explorers. 



Their width where we crossed them is a little 

 over seven miles, and their apparent height hardly 

 above a thousand feet. The chief formation is 

 porphyry, of which the loose debris scattered over 

 their slopes is composed. Springs of water are 

 extremely rare, and the appearance is desolate and 

 lifeless. They are almost devoid of vegetation, 

 except where an occasional dwarf peach, acacia, and 

 Sarcosygiiim xanthoxylon appear, or where along the 

 dry watercourses the karmyk and dirisun, or more 

 rarely still the elm, is seen. There is a remarkable 

 absence of birds, and it is only now and then that 

 you see a vulture, a lammergeie.r, a kestrel, a par- 

 tridge {Pei^dix Ckukor\ or a stofie-chat [Saxicola 

 Isabellind). 



Yet despite their barrenness, the Hurku hills are 

 inhabited by a large and rare animal, the mountain 

 goat [Capra Sibirica), called by the Mongols Ulan- 

 yaman^ which is also said to have its habitat in the 

 Yepfrai-ula mountains in the north-western ano'le of 

 Ala-shan, not far from the town of Sogo.^ In the 



' I.e. red goat. 



^ This town is ten days' journey (about 170 miles) north-west of 

 Din-yuan-ing: it was not occupied by the Dungans. 



T 2 



