Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/274

250 Upon arriving in Kan-su in the summer of 1872, we offered a reward of five lans to anyone who would show us where one of these fabulous beasts could be found. Nobody, however, came forward, to impart the desired information; unless that the Tangutan, who was acting temporarily as our guide, did certainly say that the kung-guressu inhabited the rocks on Mount Gadjur. But on our repairing to that sacred mountain, in the middle of August, we saw no trace of the extraordinary animal, and almost despaired of ever seeing one, when one day I heard that a skin might be seen at a little temple about ten miles from Chertinton. Hither we proceeded after a few days, and having made a present to the superior, requested him to show us the rare skin. The request was granted, when what was my astonishment to see, instead of some extraordinary animal, a small bear-skin stuffed with straw! All the stories we had heard were after all a pack of fables, and the narrators, after listening to my assurances that this creature was none other than a bear, declared that the kung-guressu never showed itself to people, and that its tracks alone were occasionally seen by huntsmen. This bear, whose skin I now saw, stood 4½ feet high; the muzzle protruding; the head and forepart of the body a dirty white colour; the back darker, and the paws almost black; the hind feet long and narrow, and the claws about an inch long, blunt, and of a dark colour. Unfortunately I could not take more accurate