THE YAK 



775 



of Ladakh, especially the regions in the neighborhood of the Chang-Chenmo valley 

 and the great Pangong lake. The greater portion of the country comprised within 

 this extensive area is desolate and dreary in the extreme, but yak confine themselves 

 to the wildest and most inaccessible portions of these regions, and are found only at 

 great elevations, ranging in summer from about fourteen thousand to upward of 

 twenty thousand feet, and perhaps even more, above the level of the sea. They are 

 at all times extremely impatient of heat, and delight in cold. 



Writing of the yak, General Kinloch observes that, "although so 

 large a beast, it thrives upon the coarsest pasturage, and its usual food 

 consists of a rough wiry grass, which grows in all the higher valleys of Tibet, up to 

 an elevation of nearly twenty thousand feet. On the banks of the streams in many 

 places a more luxuriant grass is met with, and it is particularly plentiful in the val- 



Habits 



FRONT AND BACK VIEWS OF THE SKUI.lv OF DOMESTICATED YAK. 

 (After Rutimeyer.; 



leys of Chang-Chenmo and Kyobrung, forming the attraction which entices the yak 

 from the still wilder and more barren country further north. Yak seem to wander 

 about a good deal. In summer the cows are generally to be found in herds varying 

 in numbers from ten to one hundred; while the old bulls are for the most part soli- 

 tary or in small parties of three or four. They feed at night and early in the morn- 

 ing, and usually betake themselves to some steep and barren hillside during the 

 day, lying sometimes for hours in the same spot. Old bulls in particular seem to 

 rejoice in choosing a commanding situation for their resting place, and their tracks 

 may be found on the tops of the steepest hills, far above the highest traces of vege- 

 tation. The yak is not apparently a very sharp-sighted beast, but its sense of 

 smell is extremely keen, and this is the chief danger to guard against in stalking it. 

 In the high valleys of Tibet, where so many glens intersect one another, and where 



