194. ACROSS MONGOLIAN PLAINS 



blocks of greenish feldspar. Among the peaces were 

 deep ravines and, farther to the east, rolling uplands 

 carpeted with grass. There the sheep are found. 



We killed only one goral and a roebuck during the 

 first two days, for a violent gale made hunting well-nigh 

 impossible. On the third morning the sun rose in a 

 sky as blue as the waters of a tropic sea, and not a breath 

 of air stirred the silver poplar leaves as we crossed the 

 rocky stream bed to the base of the mountains north of 

 camp. Fifteen hundred feet above us towered a ragged 

 granite ridge which must be crossed ere we could gain 

 entrance to the grassy valleys beyond the barrier. 



We had toiled halfway up the slope, when my hunter 

 sank into the grass, pointed upward, and whispered, 

 "pan-yang" (wild sheep). There, on the very summit 

 of the highest pinnacle, stood a magnificent ram sil- 

 houetted against the sky. It was a stage introduction 

 to the greatest game animal in aU the world. 



Motionless, as though sculptured from the living 

 granite, it gazed across the valley toward the village 

 whence we had come. Through my glasses I could see 

 every detail of its splendid body — ^the wash of gray with 

 which many winters had tinged its neck and flanks, the 

 finely drawn legs, and the massive horns curling about 

 a head as proudly held as that of a Roman warrior. He 

 stood like a statue for half an hour, while we crouched 

 motionless in the trail below ; then he turned deliberately 

 and disappeared. 



When we reached the summit of the ridge the ram was 

 nowhere to be seen, but we found his tracks on a path 



