Animal plagues : their history, nature, and prevention / by George Fleming.

  • George Fleming
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Animal plagues : their history, nature, and prevention / by George Fleming. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    22/624 (page 16)
    The immense Steppes of Centra] Asia still furnish us with examples of th,s condition of the unsettled races who wander over therw'th the. countless herds and flocks3 and a recent traveller^ in that'eln sfT':; 'T'^^ T --^^ Witnessed aZg them Just as he day dawned I turned out to examine our position when I d,scovered the snowy peaks of the Syan-Shan. They Tpear d cold and ghost-like against the deep blue sky, presently'th tipped wuh the sun's rays, and shone forth like rubies. I sat on th ground watchmg the changes with much interest, till the whole land- scape was hghted up. Immediately near me was a busy scene-on one s,de the men were milking the mares, to the number of more than one hundred, and carrying the leathern pails of milk to the Koumis bag m the yourt; the young foals being secured in two long lines to pegs dnven u.to the ground. In front, and on tl.e opposite side, the women were milking cows, sheep, and goats, and at a little distance beyond^ these the camels were suckling their young. Around the aoul (camp) the Steppe was filled with animal life. The sultan told me that there were more than two thousand horses, half the number of cows and oxen, two hundred and eighty camels, and more than six thousand sheep and goats. The screams of the camels, the bellowincr ot the bulls, the neighing of horses, and the bleating of sheep and goats formed a pastoral chorus such as I had never heard in Europe.' On another occasion he writes: 'AH were out with the dawn, and then commenced a scene in pastoral life highly interesting to me. I had left the yourt (tent), and looked around in every direction, but be- held only a mass of living animals. The whole of tlae herds are brought to the aoul at night, where they are most carefully guarded by watchmen and dogs placed in every direction, rendering it almost impossible to enter any aoul without detection. In my childhood I lived in locahties where there were many horses and cattle, and used to think a flock of five or six hundred sheep a large one; but was now astonished by the numbers before and around me. The noise at first was almost intolerable—there was the sharp cry of the camels, the neighing of the horses, the bellowing of the bulls, the bleating of the sheep and goats, the barking of the dogs, and the shouting of the men, ^ Atkinson. Oriental and Western Siberia, p. 497.