Guys,

While doing a little research today about Elgin Gates I ran across this article from 1961 that I thought some of you might find interesting.  Below is an excerpt: 

Gates, who has taken every trophy worth taking, including the Weatherby, topped off his collection just after Fitz. In 1959 he brought down what in some quarters is considered the most magnificent and unattainable animal of all: Marco Polo's sheep of Asia. The last time these Ovis poli were collected by a museum expedition was in 1927; their habitat—the wild, tumbling mountains where China, Pakistan, Kashmir, Afghanistan and Russia lie in uncomfortable juxtaposition was considered inaccessible long before politics was added to the hazards of the hunt. To get an old ram with horns measuring five feet around the curl, Gates had to climb 20,000 feet in the shadow of K2, endure blizzards and subzero temperatures, fight his way through chest-high snow and probe inside the borders of Red China at the risk of being trophy-collected himself by a Chinese patrol. He traveled 30,000 miles by airplane, automobile, train, yak and horse, and logged another 40) miles on foot. Later he was quoted on his reaction to the first sight of the rare animals: "There they were! Nine Ovis poli rams with great flaring horns.... My heart was in my throat, and my hands started trembling so badly I had to lower my binoculars. I am not ashamed to say that tears of emotion ran down my face and froze.... It had been 30 years since the last one had been seen by a Westerner, 32 years since the last poli was taken by an American Museum expedition, and the first time in history that an American big game hunter had ever looked at these majestic animals."

Here is a link to the full article.

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