THE PAMIR WILD SHEEP 809 



on one occasion having seen a ram accompanied by two ewes cros a pass and de- 

 liberately descend the valley to within a short distance of the spot where he himself 

 was lying concealed. During the summer the old rams are generally found in small 

 parties of from three to four to upward of some fifteen individuals of their own sex, 

 and quite apart from the ewes; but the above-mentioned instance shows that they 

 may occasionally be accompanied by them. The breeding season is in the winter, 

 when these sheep collect in the lower and more sheltered valleys; and the young are 

 born in May or June. The flesh of the nyan, as the author can testify from personal 

 experience, is most excellent, being dark colored, fine grained, and well flavored. 

 In L,adakh the chief haunts of this splendid sheep are the Chang-Chenmo valley and 

 the neighborhood of the Pangong lake, and thence into Chinese Tibet. A wild 

 hybrid between a male of this sheep and a female of the under-mentioned urial, was 

 shot in Zanskar, and described as a distinct species under the name of O. brookei; 

 while there is also a record of a hybrid between the male urial and the female nyan. 



A fossil argali occurs in the forest bed of the Norfolk coast, and re- 

 rossil Argali 



mains of other species have been obtained from the superficial deposit 

 of the continent. 



THE PAMIR WILD SHEEP (Ovis poli) 



Although discovered by the great Venetian traveler as long ago as the latter 

 part of the thirteenth century, it is only since the year 1873 that the great Pamir 

 wild sheep has been fully known to science. In that year it was described by the 

 Russian naturalist Severtzoff, under the name of Karelin's sheep (O. karelini); 

 while specimens of the skin and horns obtained during the second expedition to 

 Yarkand, under the late Sir Douglas Forsyth in 1873-74, were soon afterward re- 

 ceived in England. It is true, indeed, that the species was named by Mr. E. Blyth 

 in 1840, but it was then only very imperfectly known. Since 1873 our knowledge 

 has advanced rapidly, and this magnificent sheep has been shot by two English- 

 men Mr. St. George L,ittledale and Major C. S. Cumberland who traveled to 

 the Pamir for the express purpose of securing skins and horns. 



The Pamir sheep, although furnished with longer horns, does not appear to 

 attain quite such large dimensions as the Tibetan argali, from which it is mainly 

 distinguished by the form of the horns, and also by coloration. In the male the 

 horns, when viewed from the side, are seen to form a spiral of about a circle and a 

 quarter, and when adult they are much longer than those of the argali, but are less 

 massive at the base. In fine specimens the horns may measure from fifty to sixty 

 inches in length along the curve, with a basal girth of about fifteen inches; a speci- 

 men has, however, been recorded measuring sixty-three inches in length, while one 

 pair attained the enormous length of seventy-three inches, with a basal girth of six- 

 teen and three-fourths inches; and another seventy-five inches, with a girth of 

 sixteen inches. Females, as shown in our illustration, have small upright horns 

 like those of the female argali. The color of the fur on the upper parts of the rams 

 is light brown, with a more or less marked reddish tinge; but there is a dark line of 

 longer hair extending from the nape of the neck to the withers, which in the female 

 is sometimes continued as a stripe down the back. The muzzle, together with the 



