SPORT ON THE PLATEAUX 321 



known to Europe by William Rubruck, who, in his 

 account of a journey to Mongolia in the middle of the 

 thirteenth century, mentioned seeing a " kind of wild 

 animal which is called ' arcoli,' which has quite the body 

 of a sheep, and horns bent like a ram's, but of such a 

 size that I could hardly lift two horns with one hand ; 

 and they make of these horns big cups." The first 

 European hunter to shoot this great wild-sheep was Major 

 Cumberland, who, on information received from that 

 remarkable traveller, Mr. Ney Elias, journeyed to the 

 Altai and procured several specimens. That was in 

 1895, and since then not more than one hunter a year, 

 on an average, has visited this region ; so that a really 

 large " ammon " head still remains one of the rarest 

 and most prized of trophies. 



It was late August when we reached Achit Nor, one 

 of the numerous lakes which dot the Mongolian plateau. 

 Every few days a severe snow or hail storm swept over 

 us, which, together with the frequent " honking " of 

 wild geese overhead, warned us that winter was not 

 far distant, and that, if we wished to hunt the ammon 

 and get across the passes of the Great Altai before they 

 were closed, we must not delay. Achit Nor, at this 

 season, presented a remarkable spectacle with its teeming 

 thousands of wild-fowl. Undoubtedly great numbers 

 breed there in the large area of marsh and reeds at its 

 northern end. The greater portion, however, were 

 merely using it as a resting-place on their long flight 

 southwards from their summer haunts in Siberia. 

 There were swans, two kinds of geese, and many varieties 

 of duck, gulls, divers, and waders, including both green 

 and golden plovers. 



Every morning and evening large numbers of duck 



