DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS OF ARGALI SHEEP 141 



mountains near Peking harboured Argali only some tens of 

 years ago. Since then they have however completely dis- 

 appeared from there. The territory at present frequented 

 by these animals can with certainty be delimited only to a 

 comparatively short stretch within the afore-mentioned 

 range (Ta Tsing Shan). The part of this mountain-chain, 

 which I have had the opportunity to visit, lies immediately 

 north of the city of Kuei-Hua-Ch'eng, near the bend of the 

 Yellow Eiver, which place until lately belonged to Shansi 

 Province, but now is under the jurisdiction of the new 

 province Suiyuan. 



The region visited embraces the east end of In- Shan, 

 Ongiin-Ola and certain parts of Suma-Chada and Cha- 

 raktshin-Ola. Here the Argali is still to be found, though 

 perhaps not so abundantly as in certain distant parts 

 of Central Asia; yet in certain sparsely populated regions the 

 sheep are even here not difficult to find. 



The mountains rise here rather abruptly from the Sui- 

 yuan plain, which is only 3,480' ft. above sea level. Near 

 the plain the mountains are wild and rugged, fissured by a 

 number of deep and narrow gulleys in which water is 

 generally running all the year round. 



Penetrating further northwards into the range the wild 

 and rocky border land slowly merges into a vast, grassy 

 highland, the altitude of which is on average 6,500 — 7,000 ft. 

 above sea-level. 



In the narrow zone between the Mongolian Plateau and 

 the Suiyuan plain we find all that remains of the once more 

 numerous and more widely distributed Argali sheep. 



Existing here as we may say on the staircase from 

 China to Mongolia they are no doubt doomed to extinction 

 within the not very distant future, because here as elsewhere 

 in the borderland agriculture conquers yearly new strips of 

 land. The desire to protect animals and nature through reser- 

 vations has not yet arisen in this great Eepublic. Nothing 

 is saved, everything annihilated to serve the interest of man 

 and the favourite grounds of the Wild Sheep are soon 

 transformed to fields of agriculture for the Chinese farmer. 



Deeper and deeper cultivation penetrates into every 

 suitable valley, and where the valley-bottom does not 

 suffice, the hillsides are terraced. Even the above men- 

 tioned grassy highlands in the interior of the range, which 

 regions are the favourite grounds of the sheep, are now more 

 and more furrowed by the plough. 



The territory which has been comparatively untouched 

 is the wild rocky zone between plain and highlands. But 



