"Wild game of every sort abounds. There are great quantities of wild sheep of huge size. Their horns grow to as much as six palms in length and are never less than three or four. From these horns, the shepherds make big bowls from which they feed and also fences to keep in their flocks".

- The Travels of Marco Polo

The tales of Marco Polo have challenged many men over the past centuries to search for the fabled places and animals of which he wrote on his journey from Venice to Peking in the 13th century. Marco Polo himself was ridiculed for his stories of giant sheep and the 'Roof of the World' upon his return to Venice. It wasn't until the early 1800s when British explorers ventured onto the Pamir plateaus, high in China's far west, that rumours of the sheep surfaced again. Local nomads spoke of the 'rasa': an animal bigger than a cow yet smaller than a horse. In 1838, Lt. John Woods, a British Officer exploring the Afghan Pamirs near the Chinese border, made enquiries and was soon presented with a sheep like no other ever seen by Western eyes and whose horns were of an astonishing size. These horns were sent to the Royal Society in London who confirmed the existence of this unique species and in honour of the greatest of all explorers, named it Ovis poli; the Marco Polo sheep.

The 'rediscovery' of the Marco Polo sheep was one of the most important zoological events of its time and sporting members of the Royal Society and big game hunters of Africa mounted expeditions into the Pamirs. In the rarefied atmosphere sometimes 20,000 feet above see level, British explorers such as Major C.S. Cumberland, Lord Dunmore and the eccentric St. George Littledale accompanied by his remarkable wife, hunted the 'Ultimate Trophy' across the remote ice plateaus. When the British began to dispute with the Russians over Afghanistan, the Americans moved in; Kermit and Theodore, sons of Teddy Rosevelt and in 1926, James L. Clark and William Morden. Sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, Clark and Morden reported healthy populations of Ovis poli in the Russian and Afghan Pamirs, but were sad to announce that they believed Marco Polo's sheep had become extinct on Chinese soil.

Such tales take us back to the days of the great adventurers when the world still held the promise of undiscovered lands and the mystical cultures of unknown races. Today most of us can only conceive of a new landscape as a pristine pocket of land hidden by some disorientating features of terrain or the quirk of a landscape that causes all to walk on by, unaware of the entrance to a long forgotten place. It seems that since Neil Armstrong took his great step for mankind, we have all looked far beyond our reach for new frontiers.

It is indeed most unusual then, to meet a New York-based owner and designer of an exclusive luggage, sportswear and accessory label who calls himself first and foremost an explorer. American Robert M. Lee, President of Hunting World Inc., is in fact one of today's most renowned and accomplished explorers and big game hunters, following in the footsteps of the Clarks and Roosevelts - and then making more of his own.

In 1980, Robert Lee mounted his own expedition into the Chinese Pamirs, on no more than the belief that, if in 1926 there had been populations of the Marco Polo sheep in Russia and Afghanistan, surely they would have survived in the vast and largely unknown lands of the Chinese Pamirs. It was on the fifth of eight expeditions into the Pamirs that Lee and his Tajik guides dismounted from their yaks at an altitude of around 15,000 feet and continued on foot, ascending rugged, rock strewn slopes and wading through deep snow drifts to crest a ragged bluff from where Lee took aim and shot a magnificent trophy ram which would be transported back to an American museum.

Not only was this the first specimen of Ovis poli to be obtained by a Westerner on Chinese soil since early this century, it was the climax to six years of delicate and precise diplomatic negotiations through which Robert Lee became one of the first Western traders allowed into China after Richard Nixon's visit in '72, and then the first to be allowed to hunt in China in the history of the People's Republic. Indeed Robert Lee became the only 'foreign devil' ever to be allowed by the Chinese Government to move with relative freedom through China's delicate border areas with Russia and Afghanistan. In his book, 'China Safari', Robert Lee wrote of his position on the morning before he also 'rediscovered' the Marco Polo sheep in China.

"From that vantage point, high in the Pamirs, I could look left over a hidden Chinese valley across the soaring peaks that marked the ill-defined border with Soviet Russia. Just over a rise behind my tent, along the Wakhan Corridor, lay war ravaged Afghanistan...No Westerner could have occupied a more unique position on Planet Earth on that Christmas Eve of 1980".

To say that Robert Lee is an unusual and truly remarkable person and that his accomplishments are many and varied does little to inform us of the complex character of the man. In the introduction to 'China Safari', regarded as one of the most important exploration and hunting books on Asia produced this century, Jim Rikhoff faced the difficult task of introducing Lee to his readers.

"He's been a premier fly-tier; successful build-developer; excellent rifle shot; dedicated fly fisherman; safari outfitter and professional hunter in Africa; brilliant designer and manufacturer of a multitude of outdoor equipment, fine luggage and clothing; a patron of the arts: a merchandiser par excellence and marketing genius; an author; an explorer and natural scientist with museum accreditation; and always through it all, a man whose inquisitive nature, keen intelligence and sense of fearless daring have carried him even further, pushing back the horizons wherever they may be, challenging the new or unthinkable..."

It seems Lee was always destined for success in virtually any endeavour he embarked upon, although his future was far from predetermined. On his fifth birthday his parents bought him a pony previously owned by John F. Kennedy and within a few years he was a competent rider. He later became a well-known trick rider and performed every year at the Long Island Rodeo. Lee's parents were nature lovers and devoted patrons of the Arts who watched with some concern as their son became engrossed in the pages of 'Outdoor Life' and dreamt about big game hunting in Africa and India. He received his first rifle by mail order at the age of ten and was allowed to keep it as his parents believed he was responsible at this early age and that his interest in hunting was balanced by an equal love of nature.

Lee's interests soon extended to fishing and he began tying fishing flies. After countless hours he became proficient and then renowned. In a field which is regarded as an art in which one normally gains a reputation only after years of experience, by the age of thirteen, 'Bob Lee's Custom Flies' were selling to local fishermen and soon after, throughout the country. Lee continued selling his flies throughout school and university and nurtured his love for hunting, stalking without success his first deer in between lessons at school.

When Lee finished university he was unsure of where to channel his talents and so his parents presented him with a challenge. The Lees owned a large tract of land on Long Island and rather than handing it over to developers, gave Robert the opportunity to plan and oversee the operation on his own. He learnt the construction game from the ground up and eventually built several communities and a large artificial lake. Financially, the construction business proved very lucrative and Lee went on to build another community in New York State before taking a vacation which would change his life.

"I had worked very very hard in the construction business", says Lee. "By the time I was twenty-one I had become very successful. In 1955 I was just a kid, touring Italy and I was fortunate to meet Enzo Ferrari who had a major impact on my life because of his single-minded stubbornness in the pursuit of his goals against formidable obstacles. I became quite friendly with him - as friendly as one could, for he was a very reserved man. I purchased my first Ferrari directly from Enzo Ferrari the following year with virtually my last cent. It was the famous Geneva Show Car of '56 and I still have the car and it's one of a kind, perfectly restored and I love it. Enzo Ferrari took the time to write me a lot of letters over the years and the last time I saw him was just after his 89th birthday. I received a letter from him just before he died".

Also in 1955, Lee decided to go to Africa on a safari to the land which had been the dreamscape of his youth. He intended to stay for six weeks. Six months later, he had established his own safari company, Lee Expeditions, and was preparing for the first of twelve years of hunting expeditions into seventeen African countries.

"It was by the light of a kerosene lamp around a campfire on the lower slopes of Mount Kenya that I made a decision to give up the lucrative construction business and become a professional safari outfitter", says Lee. "I knew it wouldn't make me any money, but it would enable me to enjoy what I saw then as the last years of Africa.

"Kenya at that time was a paradise; it was full of game and poaching was minimal and they hadn't started poaching the rhino and poaching of elephants was minimal and easily controlled. The game department was run by sincere professionals, English colonials who were trained as army officers and were very well disciplined. I knew some of the game wardens and believe me, they would arrest their own mother for any infraction of the law. They were dedicated to one thing and that was the preservation of their charges. They did a magnificent job, but of course all that changed, unfortunately, when Kenya gained its independence. The biggest poachers were people who were financed by or were direct partners with important people in government. It is common knowledge that the first president's youngest wife was engaged in the "illegal" ivory trade - I say illegal in quotes because they then legalised it. Ian Grimwood, the last great game warden of Kenya just couldn't stay under the circumstances. Government ministers would come into his office and demand permits for twenty, thirty and forty elephants and he couldn't do it and had to leave. A world tragedy was unfolding on the Dark Continent.

"I enjoyed the life in Kenya and the beauty of the country and the observation of nature and of course trophy hunting. A trophy hunter is not a mass killer - he may go on a hunt for a month and fire only two or three shots because he wants one trophy sable antelope or something like that. Dedicated hunters do more for conservation of game than anyone because we are the people who want to perpetuate the game. The World Wildlife Fund was originally founded by hunters and I would still say that it receives more than half of its support from hunters. In the United States we have more game of most species now - with the exception of the American buffalo, the bison - than we had at the time of the Indians. Teddy Roosevelt who was first and foremost a hunter was instrumental in passing legislation to create more national parks and protect certain threatened species".

In 1960, Lee wrote his first book, 'Safari Today' which was a hunting guide book for Africa and dealt with all the equipment necessary to outfit a safari. At the same time he began serious exploration in Angola into areas which had never before seen the tracks of a vehicle. Lee was interested in establishing a scientifically-managed safari organisation with a private concession from the Portugese government.

"With Portugese partners I acquired a huge hunting concession in an area that was just above the Caprivi strip of Namibia in South East Angola. It was bounded by rivers so we had to construct rafts to float our vehicles across. I divided the area into blocks like counties on a map and we researched the whole area over a period of a couple of years while conducting safaris to determine how many animals of each species could be reasonably harvested annually while bringing the game population up to the maximum or near maximum carrying capacity of the habitat. The first thing we did was stop the native poachers and there was a lot of poaching going on; there were wire snares everywhere. We hired the best poachers as game guards and as guides. So we supplied a lot of employment for the villagers. I had a marvelous group of international sportsmen coming on safaris - people from all walks of life; a fire chief, managing directors of European companies and chairmen of U.S. companies as well as princes and royalty".

In 1965, terrorists began moving into South Eastern Angola and were soon followed by the Cuban 'front men'. The Portuguese army insisted that it was too dangerous for Lee to continue running safaris in the area and he decided to return to New York. Whilst running the safaris, Lee had begun designing bags and luggage for his clients, as they normally arrived with equipment that was totally inappropriate for the conditions that lay ahead. At first the luggage was made by a tent and sail maker in Luonda, Angola's capital, and was loaned to clients for use on the safari, but as more and more of the visitors wished to buy the products, Lee's designs became more sophisticated and he began having them made in Lisbon. When Lee arrived in New York, he began Hunting World Inc., designing and manufacturing a range of luggage and leather goods which he sold to his fellow adventurers and an increasing clientele of frequent traveller who appreciated the sturdiness and durability of the products.

Among the products he sold at the very beginning was Hunting World's now famous 'carry all' bag which evolved from a bag Lee designed to carry cameras and daily necessities in the field. These bags were toted by a gun-bearer or tracker. Lee also produced his own clothing range which he had made for himself when nothing on the market satisfied his demanding standards. Over the years, the range expanded to include specialist bags, hand bags and luggage, document files, belts and also the Hunting World watch, with the company logo, the elephant silhouette, on the face and the letters of Hunting World as the hour markers.

The entire range is characterised by the Uniting World style, an ingenious blending of form and function which is sportive and neutral in colours and trim so as to complement any style or fashion. Lee's influences in design came, once again, from some very talented and famous Italians, the late Baptiste Pinnafarina and his son Sergio.

"I would say from the standpoint of design and single-minded purposefulness, I was greatly influenced by them", says Lee. "They encouraged in me the quest for perfection. Sergio is a phenomenal individual. He was elected to the European parliament and is now the Chairman of the Italian Association of Industrialists and spends a great deal of time in Rome. He built his first Bentley in 1954 and I acquired that car only last year. It's the only Pinnafarina Bentley Continental and Sergio has just restored it for me at their research and development centre near Turin. It's the second Pinnafarina body that he has restored for me, the first was the very first Pinnafarina-bodied Ferrari built in 1952 which I saw at the Geneva Automobile show in '85.

"At the show Sergio said to me, 'Bob, you like our old cars - listen, would you like to buy the first Pinnafarina Ferrari? It's right here in Geneva. The owner wrote me a letter and I don't remember his name, but the letter is in my office in Turin'. I returned to New York the next day and there was a telex waiting for me with the owner's name and phone number. I called the fellow and went straight back to Geneva and bought the car, had it trucked to Turin and Sergio restored it for me".

Back in New York, Robert Lee became friends with James Clark whose expedition into the Chinese Pamirs with Morden in 1926 was one of the great epic journeys of exploration. Every Sunday night Lee dined with the elderly Clark and listened in fascination to Clark's stories of their crossings of the Indian passes, through the Pamirs, the Tien Shan mountains in China and Mongolia. At one point Clark and Morden were captured and tortured by Mongolian soldiers who believed they were spies. Not wishing to question the thoroughness of their search for the Ovis poli, Lee nevertheless began to suspect that the two had not ventured far enough into the Pamirs and the seeds of an enormous challenge began to grow. He resolved that one day he would return to America with a Marco Polo sheep taken on Chinese soil.

In 1974 Lee went to China with the first group of Western traders when huge posters of Mao Tse-tung still looked down from the walls of Peking and when Deng Xiao Ping was occupying the Vice Chairman's seat, only years after being publicly reviled by the people. The potential of trade in this most populated of nations was of course Lee's number one priority, but he was not oblivious to the fact that Marco Polo had also been a trader who, by courting the Chinese government, was allowed to travel freely with his caravan of silks and fineries throughout the forbidden continent. However Lee believed his chances to gain the same freedom as Marco Polo were about as remote as the distant ice plateaus on which he hoped the Ovis poli still survived.

Robert Lee formed Orient Express Trading Company which became prominent in the China trade over a period of about six years and later expanded into a world trading company. All the while Lee made his quiet overtures to trading contacts and government officials about the possibility of hunting and exploring in the Tien Shan mountains. Only after a successful trip into these mountains would Lee request permission for access into the mountainous border areas with Russia and Afghanistan.

Finally, seven years after arriving in China with but faint hopes, Lee met with the highest officials of the Sinkiang Province and was granted permission to enter the Tien Shan - 'The Mountains of Heaven' - on one condition: that he depart the following day, July 21, 1980, before anyone changed their minds.

As part of the inventory for Clark and Morden's trip they had listed solar topees, a folding bath, a massive first-aid chest and even motion picture equipment. Fifty years later, the man who had been solely responsible for some of the most important advances in outdoor equipment and clothing, was forced to outfit himself for this historic journey into a region best known for its extreme conditions with whatever he could scrounge at the local bazaar.

"I was literally given permission at the last minute to go into the Tien Shan. I bought a bunch of plastic shower curtains from a Mongol shopkeeper as rain shelters and believe me, we were rained on, and at high altitude and they didn't work very well. I remember waking up in a bath of ice water, up at 14,000 feet. From a hunting standpoint, the expedition was not successful, but I did see some very nice Ibez and was privileged to be welcomed by the Kazak herdsmen who are among the greatest horsemen in the world. I rode some great Kazak mountain horses and spent a couple of nights with them and it was a magnificent experience, to be the first Westerner they had ever met".

Lee returned to New York to properly equip himself for a more extensive exploration of the Tien Shan. He was to find little game in the mountains but the trip was to have far greater benefits. Quite unexpectedly, the government officials announced that they were convinced of his sincerity and the scientific basis of his exploration and granted access into the Pamirs, including the disputed border area between China and Russia.

In October, 1980, Lee became the first foreigner to traverse the Chinese Pamirs since 1926. His early forays were plagued by problems of altitude sickness, long exhausting stalks in vain across mountainous terrain, and an uncooperative, government-appointed guide who could not believe that any man would endure such hardship to prove the existence of a sheep. The guide, in fact, like the Mongolian soldiers in Clark's day was convinced that Lee's photographic equipment was a sure sign of dubious and perhaps sinister intent.

"The lowest Plateau in the Pamirs is 10,000 feet above sea level and my best base camp was at 14,000 feet", Lee explains. "One of my highest camps was at 16,500 feet and at these altitudes there is only a hatful of air to go around. Breathing is difficult and it is difficult to cook your food. Water boils at a much lower temperature, so if you try to bring freeze-dried food that should be boiled for five or ten minutes, you have to boil it for twenty minutes, otherwise it will remain raw. The best way to cook is with a special fireplace which the natives have in their 'yurts' - the felt tents of the nomads - but I was even more nomadic than they because we were living in tents.

"There were a number of times when I thought I had pushed it just a little to far. I had a couple of very bad spills on horseback which is really very scary when you're in the mountains. For later expeditions we used yaks because while they are very slow, they are much more sure-footed. A yak will never fall out from under you, but if you ride horses for long enough in the mountains you're going to have serious accidents. I was caught out at night in a blizzard at 17,000 feet and had to come back down the mountain in pitch dark, relying on the yak's instinct to find its way back to camp. Needless to say I have tremendous respect for yaks".

After two weeks searching across the plateaus, Lee decided to descend from the Pamirs and return in December, hoping that the Marco Polo sheep were far higher into the mountains than he could reach at this time of the year, but that winter would bring them down to more accessible altitudes. In New York he prepared for the arctic conditions, redesigning Hunting World tents and preparing for an extended assault on the Pamirs.

In mid-December he returned and met local hunters who had recently killed a number of Ovis poli rams in the area. At 16,000 feet Lee sighted his first rams - too close to the Afghan border to stalk. However, on Christmas eve at 16,000 feet on Kalik Mountain overlooking three nations, he shot two trophy rams which were prepared for transport back to the United States. In 'China Safari', Lee writes of this moment:

"No apologies, I did not crave for anyone's forgiveness for drawing a bead on that magnificent ram at that great height...I do not apologise because I would no more have shot that ram than jumped off the mountaintop had I not established that he was one of many...It was a sincere mission conducted with total government approval, to find out the status of the Marco Polo sheep in that high and barren region. Before I aimed my rifle, I had satisfied myself that I was doing no ecological harm, and that the specimen or specimens which I collected during that exploration would be of true value to scientists in the United States and Europe, many of whom had become convinced - as had my friend, James Clark - that the Ovis poli was extinct on the Chinese side of the Pamirs".

Lee had certainly come far better prepared for this expedition - even to the point of having a few festive trappings with which to introduce the Tajik herdsmen to the wonders of Christmas. After descending from the plateaus, Lee and the local officials with the help of a two-feet-tall Santa Clause, a Snoopy Christmas tablecloth, streamers, paper cups and plates, held what Lee described as the first Christmas celebration in Tash Kurgan county for 2,000 years at least.

In the last decade since Lee's first trips into the Pamirs, he has returned on a number of occasions, exploring different areas and establishing the boundaries of the sheep's migratory routes. In between overseeing the continuing expansion of Hunting World, now a world famous company, Lee continues his involvement with officials in Sinkiang and has submitted a proposal for a hunting and tourism program for the Pamirs, in which photographers and hunters would be taken on controlled expeditions.

"Small groups of perhaps four to six travellers could be accommodated for, say, ten days at $2,500 or so per person", says Lee. "perhaps one hundred to one hundred and fifty people a year may pay the kind of money I have suggested. Think of the prosperity this would bring to the poor regions of Chinese Central Asia! The population would look upon Ovis poli as their gift from heaven".

Last year Lee started an endowment for wildlife research and conservation at the University of Montana, part of whose objective is to help the Chinese learn about scientific wildlife management.

"I am making a major scientific expedition in August into the Tibetan Plateau with the University of Montana", says Lee. "one of the areas we're concentrating on is parts of China that still have reasonably good seed stocks of a number of fascinating and marvellous game animals. We're sending two graduates who were funded by my endowment to spend a year studying musk deer and wild yaks and we're bringing two Chinese graduate students to Montana University to study wildlife biology and game management.

"I like to spend two months every year on major expeditions which I can also justify as research and development for Hunting World. Every time I take a new product into the field I find lots of things wrong with it. I am a perfectionist which is a very difficult corner to be put in. For a perfectionist, nothing is ever perfect. I find things wrong with the finest English shotguns, with Rolls-Royce cars and Ferraris. If there's something wrong with it, it upsets me because I want it to be perfect. I have learned to live with the imperfections of life, including all my own, but I like to see things done well.

"You never, never perfect a product without constant field testing. I always design a product to function well and if you design something that functions well, usually it will come out looking good. I don't want to use the term 'form follows function', it has been overplayed, but it is true. I will use some of them under field conditions myself and put others in the hands of people who are going here or there and get the feedback".

Today Hunting World already has the largest range of high quality leathergoods in the world, far broader in scope than the other three top brands combined and yet Lee continues on the expansion trail, introducing some twenty-five new products each year.

"I love this business", he says, "It is my hobby. I work fourteen days a week and love every moment of it. We are really the only American firm with a core business of luggage and leather goods which has achieved this position in the Far East. We have a great fashion impact, but of course it didn't start that way. They tell me I am the only American designer who sells leather to the Italians. I have been a doodler all my life and I like to design things. When I was in the construction business I designed all the houses and I have designed sporting rifles and shotguns and telescopic sighting systems and watches and car interiors.

"I am going to expand our apparel business tremendously and our outdoor footwear, the watch and jewellery business and also our scarves and ties. I am going to expand our fine arts business - sporting sculpture and sporting art - and I am working on new leathers at the moment including very exciting leathers which are waterproof. I will be adding some more people in top management so I can spend a little more time in exploration".

In the process of increasing the number of Hunting World outlets worldwide, Lee crosses so many time zones in the course of a month that even his explorer's instincts don't prevent him from waking up in the morning now and them, wondering what country he's in. "I have to shake my head", he says, "and say, 'Ah, yes, this looks like the Hotel Meurice'.

"This business requires constant travel. I had one girlfriend for a number of years but we didn't work out and I am seeing another lady now, but marriage just isn't in the cards for me. No wife could put up with someone who travels the amount I do. I live in an orbiting pressure cooker, but I love it. I don't know what I would do if I had to stay in the one place for more than a week or two".