142 DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS OF ARGALI SHEEP 



even here the sheep are by no means undisturbed, owing to 

 the people from the plains roaming about in the hills in search 

 for fuel. They come in hundreds and thousands, penetrate 

 into all the valleys and despoil the hillsides of trees, brush- 

 wood and even grass. These daily inroads of the fuel col- 

 lectors cause the sheep to live in a constant state of fear and 

 trepidation, they are driven from valley to valley or seek 

 their shelter in unapproachable gulleys and precipitous 

 slopes. When the people have left, and tranquility again 

 reigns in the desolate valleys, they may return to their 

 grazing grounds on the valley-sides. 



One finds them in small herds here and there on the 

 innumerable ridges or on the the slopes of the deep valleys. 

 The flocks generally consist of a small harem of females and 

 youngsters with one or more, often several rams of different 

 ages in company. Very old ranis are sometimes met with all 

 alone far up in desolate valleys living like hermits by them- 

 selves. But it is not unusual to find two or three rams in 

 company, of which the biggest seems to be the leader. 



In Ta-Tsing-Shan they are not found — like the Ovis 

 nahura of Tibet — in large herds. The largest flock I saw 

 on Ongun-Ola, consisted of twenty-two animals; of this at 

 least half were rams of which several carried imposing horns. 



In the region near the plain they graze as a rule down 

 in the nullas of the rocky valleys, but if they are disturbed, 

 they proceed over one of the ridges and are thus found again 

 in the next valley. To hunt them here does not present 

 excessive difficulty. 



The regions where the sheep can live their own natural 

 life are very few and far between in this part of Ta-Tsing- 

 Shan. In the interior there remain however some territories 

 to which cultivation has not as yet penetrated. Up there 

 on the highlands the grass is abundant, the rocky ridges 

 flattened out, the valleys broad and ample, and on the 

 whole this country reminds me of the grazing grounds in 

 West Kansu, which I visited later and which are inhabited 

 by Goa-gazelles. 



Here I found Argali in surroundings, where they were 

 seldom disturbed; small herds or single animals could be 

 seen day after day on the same slopes, grazing or resting. 



In this open country it was not easy to get within range 

 because here they do not allow the hunter to surprise them 

 as down in the rocky valleys, where the hunt on the whole 

 is astonishingly easy. Kegarding their habits they resem- 

 ble O. amnion (see above) ; like other wild sheep they graze 

 morning and night sometimes also in the middle of the day, 



