Ovis Poll 



CHAPTER XII 



THE OVIS POLI OF THE PAMIR 

 BY ST. GEORGE LITTLEDALE 



THE great Pamir, or ' roof of the world,' forms the nucleus of 

 the whole Central Asiatic highland system, and consists of a 

 vast plateau formation some 30,000 square miles in extent, 

 with a mean elevation of at least 15,000 ft. 



This, shortly, is what modern geographers have to say of the 

 home of Ovis Poll : 



The plain is called Pamier, and you ride across it for twelve 

 days together finding nothing but a desert without habitations or 

 any green thing, so that travellers are obliged to carry with them 

 whatever they have need of; North-east, you travel forty days over 

 mountains and wilderness, and you find no green thing. The 

 people are savage idolaters, clothing themselves in the skins of 



