UPPER ASIA 
the concentrated efforts and energy of the hunter to bring a good head to 
bag. The ammon is not to be held lightly, he is a worthy foe, of wonderful 
sagacity, living in a hostile country. His horns are a rarity, which one 
may be proud to possess. 
The home of the ammon stretches from the Siberian frontier to the 
borders of the high Gobi Desert; it consists, in fact, of the north portion of 
the great plateau. The wild sheep range on to the watershed of the moun- 
tains which form the actual frontier between the two Empires and are 
the water-parting between Arctic drainage and the inland, self-contained 
basins of the heart of the continent. The Little Altai, the Sailugem Range 
and the Tannu-ola Mountains form the northern limit; the crest of the 
Mongolian or Great Altai bounds their territory on the west; towards 
the south and east they range as far as well -pastured hill country extends 
into the Gobi. The nucleus of their range, and their real retreat, is the north- 
western corner of Outer Mongolia, between the Little and the Mongolian 
Altai. This is where they are most numerous and run largest; towards the 
south and east they diminish in numbers and size, it being still doubtful 
whether the wild sheep which the Russian explorers have found on the 
Ati-bogdo and Gurbun Saikhan ranges in the Northern Gobi are true 
Ovis ammon or some new variety of the species. On the analogy of the 
variations of Ovis poli in the Pamirs and the western Tian Shan, it is proba- 
ble that the eastern allies of the ammon are a distinct and well pronounced 
variety. There is a wild sheep in the mountains to the south-east of Lake 
Baikal which is probably of the same type. 
It is the extensive grazing grounds which lie at the sources of the Upper 
Kobdo River and its tributaries that call for our attention. It is here that 
all previous hunters have spent their time, and, from our own experience, 
it seems as if even the great untried ranges in the heart of Mongolia do 
not hold out any better opportunities. This region is one of severity of 
climate and scenery. The home of the ammon is more open to the elements, 
more bleak, more liable to sudden and drastic changes of climate than 
even the “ roof of the world ” itself. The Altai sheep grounds are not wide 
valleys sheltered between higher mountain ranges, but one great table- 
land unprotected on all sides, swept by wind and snow, exposed to the 
bitter cold of winter and scarcely tempered by the short, uncertain summer 
months. Northwards is the heavily forested and richly vegetated Alpine 
scenery of Siberia, a warmer, damper clime, well-suited to the needs of 
the Russian colonists. Southwards the plateau inclines and eventually 
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