THE URIN 29 



when, if she had been absent, a walk of a few hundred 

 yards would have placed him for his shot. 



The report of the rifle has its counterpart in so many 

 sounds of common occurrence in these elevated regions, that 

 ibex are little alarmed by it. " Falling rock " or " thunder " 

 is the first idea that occurs to them, and their first thought 

 is to get out of the way of those familiar dangers. When 

 a good stalk is made, and the sportsman has his wits about 

 him, several shots can almost always be obtained, and 

 instances of three of four animals having been bagged at 

 one stalk are not rare. The ground, too, generally is so 

 favourable that the stalker can get within very short 

 range — always provided that the sharp-sighted female has 

 been successfully dodged. I have shot bucks at five, ten, 

 and fifteen yards distance, and a sportsman has informed 

 me that on one occasion he could have touched the animal 

 with the muzzle of his rifle ! 



The urin or oorin {Ovis vignei) is the only representa- 

 tive of the wild sheep in Astor. I have never shot him, 

 and I cannot therefore speak of him from personal 

 acquaintance. Sterndale (p. 435) gives a very short 

 notice of him : " General colour brownish-grey, beneath 

 paler, belly white ; a short beard of stifiish brown hair ; 

 the horns of the male sub-triangular, rather compressed 

 laterally, and rounded posteriorly, deeply sulcated, curving 

 outward and backward from the skull, points divergent. 

 The female is beardless, with small horns. The male horns 

 run from 25 to 35 inches, but larger have been recorded. 



" This sheep was for some time, and is still by some, 

 confounded with the oorial {Ovis cycloceros), but there 

 are distinct differences. ... It inhabits the elevated 

 ranges of Ladakh, and is found in Baltistiin, where it is 

 called the oorin." 



" X5'rin " is, I think, the Astor, not the Baltistun name. 



