Manchu women, and from the simple, silly Mongol girls with their great red cheeks and dirty, unintelligent faces. These Turkis were fine, handsome women, with complexions not much darker than Greeks or Spaniards. They had good colour on their cheeks, and their eyes were dark and full. Their whole appearance was most picturesque, for they had a fine, dignified bearing, and were dressed in a long loose robe not confined at the waist, their long black tresses allowed to fall over their shoulders, only fastened at the ends into two thick plaits ; on their head, slightly inclined backwards, they wore a bright red cap,. which set off their whole appearance very effectively.
They stared with great astonishment at the sudden appearance of a white man (though I fancy at that time my face was not quite as white as an Englishman's generally is). But we had not much time to examine each other's charms, for I had that day to cross the Tian-span.
Starting early, we ascended the stream, but it soon disappeared again, and we saw nothing more of it. The hillsides were at first rather bare, but the higher we got the greener they became ; and after five or six miles were covered with rich green turf, most delightful to look upon after the bare hills of the Gobi ; while here and there through an opening in the hills we could catch a glimpse of the snowy peaks above. There are, however, no trees nor even bushes, either on the hills or in the valleys. I was told we should probably see some Ovis argali, so I went on ahead with my carbine and telescope. By the roadside we passed several horns of the Ovis argali, and two other kinds of wild sheep or goat, Ovis argali being the most common.
In the bed of the stream I found a magnificent Ovis argali head, measuring. fifty-six inches, and put it in triumph on a camel ; but a few miles further on I rejected it with scorn, when, lying on a rock, I saw a huge head, one horn of which measured sixty-two inches. Both horns were in almost perfect condition,
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