ts in 1913, the Chinese Government has refused to
grant passports to foreigners who wished to shoot in that region.
The brigands themselves cannot waste cartridges at one dollar each
on the sheep, so the animals have been allowed to breed unmolested.

Nevertheless, there are not many sheep there. They are the last
survivors of great herds which once roamed the mountains of north
China. The technical name of the species is _Ovis commosa_ (formerly
_O. jubata_) and it is one of the group of bighorns known to
sportsmen by the Mongol name of _argali_. In size, as well as
ancestry, the members of this group are the grandfathers of all the
sheep. The largest ram of our Rocky Mountains is a pygmy compared
with a full-grown _argali_. Hundreds of thousands of years ago the
bighorns, which originated in Asia, crossed into Alaska by way of
the Bering Sea, where there was probably a land connection at that
time From Alaska they gradually worked southward, along the
mountains of the western coast, into Mexico and Lower California. In
the course of time, changed environment developed different species;
but the migration route from the Old World to the New is there for
all to read.

The supreme trophy of a sportsman's life is the head of a Mongolian
bighorn sheep. I think it was Rex Beach who said, "Some men can
shoot but not climb. Some can climb but not shoot. To get a sheep
you must be able to climb and shoot, too."

For its Hall of Asiatic Life, the American Museum of Natural History
needed a group of _argali_. Moreover, we wanted a ram which would
fairly represent the species, and that meant a very big one. The
Reverend Harry R. Caldwell, with whom I had hunted tiger in south
China, volunteered to get them with me. The brigands did not worry
us unduly, for we both have had considerable experience with Chinese
bandits and we feel that they are like animals--if you don't tease
them, they won't bite. In this case the "teasing" takes the form of
carrying anything that they could readily dispose of--especially
money. I decided that my wife must remain in Peking. She was in open
rebellion but there was just a possibility that the brigands might
annoy us, and we had determined to have those sheep regardless of
consequences.

Although we did not expect trouble, I knew that Harry Caldwell could
be relied upon in any emergency. When a man will crawl into a
tiger's lair, a tangle of sword grass and thorns, just to find out
what the br