214. ACROSS MONGOLIAN PLAINS 



a very definite impression of just where that sheep was 

 to be found, and he completely ignored the ravines on 

 either side of the trail. 



Not half a mile from the summit of the pass, the 

 Mongol stopped and said, "Pan-yang on that ridge 

 across the valley." He looked again and turned to 

 me with a smile. "It is the same ram," he said. "I 

 knew he woiild be here." Sure enough, when I found 

 the sheep with my glasses, I recognized our old friend. 

 The little ewe was with him, and they had been joined 

 by another ram carrying a circlet of horns, not far short 

 of the big fellow's in size. 



For half an hour we watched them while the Mon- 

 gols smoked. The sheep were standing on the very 

 crest of a ridge across the river, moving a few steps 

 now and then, but never going far from where we first 

 discovered them. My hunter said that soon they would 

 go to sleep, and in less than half an hour they filed 

 down hill into the valley; then we, too, went down, 

 crossed a low ridge, and descended to the river's edge. 

 The climb up the other side was decidedly stiff, and it 

 was nearly an hour before we were peering into the ra- 

 vine where the sheep had disappeared. They were not 

 there, and the hunter said they had gone either up or 

 down the valley he could not tell which way. 



We went up first, but no sheep. Then we crossed 

 to the ridge where we had first seen the argali and cau- 

 tiously looked over a ledge of rocks. There they were, 

 about three hundred yards below, and on the alert, for 

 they had seen Tom's hunter, who had carelessly ex- 



