It
was a Kirghiz burying-ground." (Pp. 223, 229, 231)
[With reference to Wood's remark that the horns of the Ovis Poli supply
shoes for the Kirghiz horses, Mr. Rockhill writes to me that a Paris
newspaper of 24th November, 1894, observes: "Horn shoes made of the horn
of sheep are successfully used in Lyons. They are especially adapted to
horses employed in towns, where the pavements are often slippery. Horses
thus shod can be driven, it is said, at the most rapid pace over the worst
pavement without slipping."
(Cf. Rockhill, Rubruck, p. 69; Chasses et Explorations dans la Region
des Pamirs, par le Vte. Ed. de Poncins, Paris, 1897, 8vo. - H. C.).]
[Illustration: Ovis Poli, the Great Sheep of Pamir. (After Severtsof.)
"El hi a grant montitude de monton sauvages qe sunt grandisme, car out lee
cornes bien six paumes"....]
In 1867 this great sheep was shot by M. Severtsof, on the Plateau of
Aksai, in the western Thian Shan. He reports these animals to go in great
herds, and to be very difficult to kill. However, he brought back two
specimens. The Narin River is stated to be the northern limit of the
species.[5] Severtsof also states that the enemies of the Ovis Poli are
the wolves, [and Colonel Gordon says that the leopards and wolves prey
almost entirely upon them. (On the Ovis Poli, see Captain Deasy, In
Tibet, p. 361.) - H. C.]
Colonel Gordon, the head of the exploring party detached by Sir Douglas
Forsyth, brought away a head of Ovis Poli, which quite bears out the
account by its eponymus of horns "good 6 palms in length," say 60 inches.
This head, as I learn from a letter of Colonel Gordon's to a friend, has
one horn perfect which measures 65-1/2 inches on the curves; the other,
broken at the tip measures 64 inches; the straight line between the tips
is 55 inches.
[Captain Younghusband [1886] "before leaving the Altai Mountains, picked
up several heads of the Ovis Poli, called Argali by the Mongols. They
were somewhat different from those which I afterwards saw at Yarkand,
which had been brought in from the Pamir. Those I found in the Gobi were
considerably thicker at the base, there was a less degree of curve, and a
shorter length of horn." A full description of the Ovis Poli, with a
large plate drawing of the horns, may be seen in Colonel Gordon's Roof of
the World. (See p. 81.) (Proc. R. G. S. X. 1888, p. 495.) Some years
later, Captain Younghusband speaks repeatedly of the great sport of
shooting Ovis Poli. (Proc. R. G. S. XIV. 1892, pp. 205, 234.) - H. C.]
As to the pasture, Timkowski heard that "the pasturage of Pamir is so
luxuriant and nutritious, that if horses are left on it for more than
forty days they die of repletion." (I. 421.) And Wood: "The grass of
Pamir, they tell you, is so rich that a sorry horse is here brought into
good condition in less than twenty days; and its nourishing qualities are
evidenced in the productiveness of their ewes, which almost invariably
bring forth two lambs at a birth." (P. 365.)
With regard to the effect upon fire ascribed to the "great cold,"
Ramusio's version inserts the expression "gli fu affermato per
miracolo," "it was asserted to him as a wonderful circumstance." And
Humboldt thinks it so strange that Marco should not have observed this
personally that he doubts whether Polo himself passed the Pamir. "How is
it that he does not say that he himself had seen how the flames disperse
and leap about, as I myself have so often experienced at similar altitudes
in the Cordilleras of the Andes, especially when investigating the
boiling-point of water?" (Cent. Asia, Germ. Transl. I. 588.) But the
words quoted from Ramusio do not exist in the old texts, and they are
probably an editorial interpolation indicating disbelief in the statement.
MM. Huc and Gabet made a like observation on the high passes of
north-eastern Tibet: "The argols gave out much smoke, but would not burn
with any flame"; only they adopted the native idea that this as well as
their own sufferings in respiration was caused by some pernicious
exhalation.
Major Montgomerie, R.E., of the Indian Survey, who has probably passed
more time nearer the heavens than any man living, sends me the following
note on this passage: "What Marco Polo says as to fire at great altitudes
not cooking so effectually as usual is perfectly correct as far as
anything boiled is concerned, but I doubt if it is as to anything
roasted. The want of brightness in a fire at great altitudes is, I
think, altogether attributable to the poorness of the fuel, which consists
of either small sticks or bits of roots, or of argols of dung, all of
which give out a good deal of smoke, more especially the latter if not
quite dry; but I have often seen a capital blaze made with the argols when
perfectly dry. As to cooking, we found that rice, dal, and potatoes
would never soften properly, no matter how long they were boiled. This, of
course, was due to the boiling-point being only from 170 deg. to 180 deg.. Our
tea, moreover, suffered from the same cause, and was never good when we
were over 15,000 feet. This was very marked. Some of my natives made
dreadful complaints about the rice and dal that they got from the
village-heads in the valleys, and vowed that they only gave them what was
very old and hard, as they could not soften it!"
[Illustration:
