Geography Reference
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northward, one would see broad, sandy valleys covered with grasses, each separated from
the next by ramparts of black slate rock, rising a thousand meters or more above.
Other than this rough, four-wheel-drive road, however, only a few isolated vehicle
tracks would be found snaking their way into the tributary valleys, none of which had
yet been used frequently enough to deserve being termed a road. Pastoral encampments,
whether lower in the desert scrub or higher up, would have consisted of a single tent,
with perhaps an auxiliary storage tent, there being not a single permanent structure to be
found anywhere within the valley. Even in the lower-elevation sections, our traveler would
rarely see human beings. Once beyond about 4,000-meter elevation, only an occasional
summer pastoralist or intrepid gold-miner passing through on a tractor—perhaps one or
two daily in summer, with most cold-season days witnessing none at all—would detract
from an enormous landscape otherwise devoid of humans.
Beyond the stunning scenery, our traveler, if focusing attention away from the tower-
ing peaks and broad vistas toward wildlife, would gradually have discovered the pres-
ence of a unique and diverse fauna. If upon first entry one noticed only the occasional
Tibetan gazelle and wild ass scampering across one's path, a hike up any of the tributary
valleys—and a good pair of binoculars—would have revealed as many as five more
Tibetan Plateau ungulates. On the rocky crags or nearby slopes would be blue sheep in
small bachelor groups of 10 or large mixed-sex groups of up to 200. On gently sloping
grasses, one would find argali, with male groups of 5 to 15, and maternal groups of 15
to 40. Surprisingly for a valley this far west, one would also encounter an occasional
white-lipped deer, a species never previously known for its abundance here, but by the
early twenty-first century apparently increasing.
And everywhere one looked, one would see the slow-moving black dots that, in most
other Tibetan valleys, would indicate domestic yaks but here would mark this valley as the
largest remaining concentration in the world of their wild forbearers. Yeniugou literally
means “wild yak valley” in Chinese. Occasionally one would chance across a huge old
bull, usually sitting in solitary pose or grazing alongside one or two others, who could
be approached rather closely, thus helping to clarify that these were indeed wild rather
than domestic animals. But the large herds of these wild yaks, in which calves were kept,
would brook no such close approach. These groups would keep close to their alpine sedge
sanctuary, where they benefited not only from the highly nutritious forage but also from
the ability to look down upon any perceived danger, and to flee over talus, fell-field, and
even glacier if necessary to recover their desired solitude.
Even more numerous than wild yaks—at least early during the period—would be
chiru, although they were not spread so uniformly through the valley. The herd in Ye-
niugou was a small one by chiru standards, numbering only about 2,000 animals, with
a local rather than a long-distance migratory pattern. While small bands of male chiru
could be found grazing in the cushion-plant communities of the north-facing slopes, the
broad grassy valleys north of the river were home to females and their calves, grouped
together in groups of several hundred, sometimes wandering out onto the rocky plains
that led up to Hei Hai.
If enough time were spent in Yeniugou, our traveler would eventually have discovered
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