SINO-MONGOLIAN FRONTIER 



Presently he joined me, and together we 

 spent an hour or more working out the some- 

 what difficult trail. It led us up a steep and 

 rugged mountain side, across the divide and down 

 the face of a precipice. Sometimes we actually 

 could not climb down the places taken by the 

 wounded sheep at a bound, and were forced to 

 find easier paths. At last the blood in the trail 

 increased. There were several big splotches, 

 showing where the animal had stood to rest, or 

 look back along the trail. Presently, as we 

 rounded a bend, a large ewe sprang up from a 

 sheltered nook, and with only three sound legs 

 began to climb upwards with wonderful agility. 

 Our rifles rang out, and the sheep came rolling 

 down the precipitous slope, fetching up at the 

 bottom of a ravine a hundred feet below us. 

 Naturally, I was greatly disappointed at its being 

 a ewe. Owing to the distance, and the fact that 

 I had the afternoon sun full in my eyes when I 

 fired, I could not make out clearly of what 

 the herd had consisted. However, for my collec- 

 tion this ewe was more valuable than a ram, 

 owing to the females of the genus Ovis showing 

 more plainly the cranial characteristics of the 

 species, so I could not complain. It was more 

 than either Schroder or I could do to carry the 

 sheep, but after gutting it we tied the carcase 

 upon the native hunter's back, who being more 

 accustomed to the heavy gradients, managed to 



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