Game Animals of India, etc. 



aberrant member specially modified by long isolation 

 and the high elevation at which it lives. 



How great is the elevation above the sea-level at 

 which this animal ordinarily dwells in the wild state 

 is probably not realised by most persons ; and it may 

 perhaps assist the imagination to state that if the 

 Tibetan plateau were at the summit of a cliff rising 

 sheer up from the sea-shore, a yak looking over the 

 edge would be about four miles above the level of 

 the sea ! 



In adciition to certain features in the skull and the 

 setting-on of the horns, as well as in the form of the 

 latter, the yak approximates to the bisons in the long 

 hair with which portions of its body are clothed, and 

 also in possessing fourteen pairs of ribs, instead of the 

 thirteen found in the gaur and its allies ; the bisons 

 having fifteen pairs. The long hair is, however, more 

 elongated than in the bisons, and differently disposed 

 on the body ; while the mass of bushy hair clothing 

 the lower half of the tail serves to differentiate the yak 

 from all its kindred. 



In general build the wild bull yak is a massive, not 

 to say clumsy-looking, animal ; attaining a height of at 

 least 5^ feet at the withers, and, according to some 

 reports of sportsmen, falling little, if at all, below 

 6 feet in exceptionally fine examples. The head is 

 generally carried low, thus tending to accentuate the 

 elevation of the withers, which form a more or less 

 conspicuous hump, behind which the back is fairly 

 level, without any decided falling away at the rump. 

 The muzzle and ears are comparatively small, there 

 is no dewlap, and the short and stout limbs terminate 

 in large and massive hoofs. Very characteristic of the 

 bull yak are the long, massive, and gracefully curved 

 black horns (fig. lo) which form some of the finest 

 trophies of which the Indian sportsman can boast. 

 Although slightly compressed at the base in aged bulls, 

 yak-horns are nearly cylindrical in section and smooth 



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