STEPPES OF ASIA AND AMERICA 59 



and a half months every year. Even the Amu Daria, 

 in a western region of relatively mild winters, is frozen 

 for about a month every year. The steppe animals are 

 thus subjected to very unfavourable natural conditions, 

 but the high summer temperature, especially during 

 the rainy season, means a great intensity of life for 

 a short period. 



In giving a brief account of steppe animals, we shall 

 limit ourselves chiefly to the steppes of Central Asia 

 just described, and, as before, wiU begin with the 

 ungulates, here especially important. 



Perhaps the most characteristic of the steppe ungu- 

 lates is the saiga antelope {Saiga tartarica), an ungainly 

 animal with rather short legs, the male having a peculiar 

 sweUing on the face, which makes it appear hook-nosed. 

 The animal occurs in thousands in the Kirghiz steppes, 

 and the fact that its yellowish coat becomes almost 

 white in winter suggests the severity of the climate in 

 its home. Formerly it had a much wider distribution 

 to the west, its remains having been found even in 

 Southern England, as well as in Belgium and Southern 

 France. In the historic period it has been gradually 

 retreating eastwards, thus losing the ground which its 

 ancestors conquered in the ages when steppe con- 

 ditions were more widely spread than at present. The 

 antelopes are also represented in the steppes by two 

 kinds of gazelles, the so-called Persian gazelle {G. svh- 

 gutturosa), which extends to the Gobi desert, and the 

 Mongolian gazelle {0. gutturosa), a somewhat larger 

 animal ; but, generally speaking, the gazelles are more 

 characteristic of the warmer deserts to the south. 



No less than three kinds of horse-Uke animals haunt 

 the Asiatic steppe — the tarpan or wild horse {Equus 

 caballus), Prejevalski's horse (E. prejevahkii), and the 



