Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/335

 to see the activity with which so large an animal climbs the most inaccessible places. The smallest ledge serves as a foothold for the kuku-yaman on which he can balance his body on his thick legs. Sometimes when a stone gives way under the weight of the animal, and rolls down the precipice with a loud noise, you expect the sheep to go down after it, but the next minute it leaps over the rocks as if nothing had happened. On seeing the hunter the kuku-yaman whistles two or three times, and after a few bounds stops to see wheпсе the danger proceeds. He then offers a fair mark for the bullet; only you must not delay, otherwise, after remaining stationary a few seconds, he will continue his flight. When undisturbed the kuku-yaman generally moves at a footpace or slow canter, sometimes holding his head down.

The kuku-yaman is generally very wary and never allows anything suspicious to approach it. Its organs of scent, hearing, and sight are admirably developed; it is impossible to come within 200 paces of it downwind. Before evening it seeks its favourite alpine meadows to graze, and in the morning when the sun is high again returns to its native rocks. Here it will take up a position on some ledge and remain as motionless as a statue, now and then turning its head from side to side. I have seen the animal at such moments of repose on a shelving ledge of rock with its hind quarters reared above its head, and yet apparently perfectly at its ease. About mid-day these sheep generally rest on the ledges of