Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/334

 not dwell on the impression these sounds produced on my companion and myself. From early morning till late at night we climbed the mountains in pursuit of the wary animals, and at length shot an old buck, whose skin we prepared for our collection. Still more exciting was the chase after the mountain sheep inhabiting the Ala-shan range in great numbers, especially the wildest parts of the upper belt of the mountains. This animal is not much larger than the ordinary sheep. The colour of its wool is a tawny grey or tawny crimson; the upper part of the face, the chest, fore part of the legs, the line marking the division of the sides from the stomach, and the tip of the tail, black; the belly white, the hinder part of the legs yellowish white. The horns are large in proportion to their size, and curve upwards from the base with points twisted back. The ewes are smaller than the rams; the black marks on their bodies not so dark, and the horns small and almost upright.

The kuku-yamans live singly, in pairs, or in small herds of five to fifteen. As an exception they sometimes collect in large numbers, and my companion once saw a herd of a hundred. One or more of the males act as sentinels and protectors to the rest. On the approach of danger they at once give the alarm with a loud short whistle, so like a man's that at first I mistook it for the signal of a hunter.

A startled sheep rushes headlong up the rocks, which are often quite precipitous, and it is