described to me as smaller in size and much darker in colour than tame ones,'[1]—X. Dr. Bellew says: 'The deserts on the east of this territory, in the vicinity of Lob . . . . are the home of the wild camel. It is still, as of old, hunted there, and is described as a very vicious and fleet animal, and of small size, not much larger than a large horse. A Kirghiz shepherd, who had resided for some years at Lob, told me that he had frequently seen them at graze, and had himself joined in many hunting expeditions against them for the sake of their wool, which is very highly prized for the manufacture of a superior kind of camlet.'[2]—XI. The Russian Father Hyacinthe, in his memoirs on Mongolia, speaking of Middle Mongolia, says that there are found wild camels, wild mules, wild asses, wild horses, and wild goats, especially on the more westerly steppes.[3]—XII. Captain Valikhanoff says that Chinese works very often speak of wild camel hunts, which formed one of the amusements of the rulers of the cities of Eastern Turkestan in past ages, though he could not get information regarding the animals.[4]—XIII. Several additional testimonies will be found cited by Ritter (iii. 341, 342).[5]
We have indulged in that digression after wild camels, which Prejevalsky denied himself. He passed on into the lofty and uninhabited desert of Northern Tibet, which extends for a width in latitude of some 500 miles, at an altitude of 14,000 to 15,000 feet above the sea, and reached
- ↑ Proc. R. Geog. Soc., xviii. 80.
- ↑ Kashmir and Kashgar, p. 348.
- ↑ Denkwürdigkeiten über die Mongolei, p. 110.
- ↑ Russians in Central Asia, p. 141.
- ↑ Ritter (ii. 241), speaking of the ancient Turks of the Gobi, says:—'Their prisoners of war were compelled, like the Roman prisoners among the Germans, to act as their herdsmen. Sheep, oxen, asses, horses, and camels constituted their wealth. These last have also existed in those tracts from the most ancient times in a mild state, so that we must believe this to be their natural habitat, and in all probability they were first tamed by the Turk nomads.' I cannot find that Ritter has authority for the words which I have italicised; perhaps they only represent his own impression.
