94 
THE QUEST FOR THE WILD HORSE 
more complex landscape resolved itself into waterless 
mountains, salt lakes, and rude vegetation, so the 
types of animal life grew constantly more primitive. 
He had left behind him the semi-wild horses of the 
Don and Southern Russia, and seen the still wilder 
ponies of the Mongols, “ under the average height, 
with thick necks, large heads, thick legs, and long, 
shaggy coats/’ The camels of the Koko-Nor were 
smaller and rougher than those further West, and he 
rejoiced to think that he must now be approaching 
the original home of the wild camel, and even of the 
wild horse. “ Such a journey,” he wrote, “ must 
finally set at rest the question of the existence of wild 
camels and wild horses ; the people have repeatedly 
told me of both, and described them fully.” The 
wild camels were said to live in North-West Tsaidam, 
and to have smaller humps and more pointed muzzles 
than the tame camels, and grey hair. They were 
hunted for food, and were exceedingly fleet, wary, and 
suspicious of man. These stories of the Mongols 
were found to be correct. Several skins of the wild 
camel were brought to the traveller, and he was at last 
rewarded by a sight of one of them, though the 
distance was too great to enable him to shoot it or 
compare it with the tame animals. Later, however, 
some have been taken alive, and the existence of the 
wild camel in the Desert of Gobi may be taken as 
established . 1 
1 The skins and skeletons of the wild camel are now on view at 
the Natural History Museum. 
