530 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



employed for making saddles, saddle-girths, bridle-reins, whips, and so on, as 

 well as for the better kind of boots. . . . The tail is generally hung up as 

 a religious offering ... at some . . . saint's tomb. 



The skins are sold to the merchants of Cherchen, Charkhlik, and Achan, 

 and they carry them to Khotan, where they sell them to the . . . tanners and 

 saddlers. The skin of the yak is highly valued because of its extraordinary 

 toughness and durability. It is almost impossible to wear it out. The price 

 for the skin of a full-grown yak bull is about 17s. Qd. 



Hedin (1899, vol. 2, p. 1054, and 1904, pp. 168-205) found Yaks, 

 including one herd of 30 and another of over 100, among the moun- 

 tain ranges between the Altyn-Tagh and the Arka-Tagh. 



"The yak is to be found in Changchenmo and thence a long way 

 into Tibet, but owing to the game regulations it is not possible to 

 hunt him in Kashmir territory. The Maharajah of Kashmir, being 

 a Hindu, to whom the cow is a sacred animal, this law has been 

 introduced to avoid hurting his religious susceptibilities. . . . 



"The tufted tail of a yak is considered a trophy, and is used in 

 India as a fly whisk on ceremonial occasions." (Van der Byl, 1915, 

 p. 121.) 



"They are certainly found on that part of the Ladak Range 

 which lies between the Indus and Sutlej in Tibet, but not on any 

 other part of this mountain system, and they exist in limited num- 

 bers on some of the higher mountains which lie between the upper 

 part of the Sutlej in Tibet and the Zaskar Range. In fact they very 

 occasionally cross the crest-line of the Zaskar Range into Kumaon 

 near the Kangri Bingri Pass. (Burrard, 1925?, pp. 244-245.) 



Schafer shows (1938, map) that half a century ago the range 

 of the Wild Yak in eastern Tibet extended south in the steppe 

 country nearly to Jekundo and Seshu, but has now receded to a 

 line running northeast-southwest between Tsaring Nor and Oring 

 Nor, near the southern base of the Marco Polo Range. 



Brooke Dolan, II, writes (MS., 1938; cf. also Dolan, in G. M. 

 Allen, 1939a, pp. 292-293) : "The wild yak of northern Tibet and 

 Kokonor seem to have retreated steadily west and north into north- 

 ern Tibet, due to unceasing hunting by nomads living on the fringe 

 of the high Tibetan desert. Skulls and bones litter the steppes of 

 the upper Yellow River but the yak have not been common there 

 for a decade so far as we could determine. The nomads in recent 

 years have obtained European rifles and ammunition, chiefly Eng- 

 lish, through Darjeeling. The military ammunition wounds three 

 animals to every one brought down for food and meat. Schafer saw 

 yak only three or four times in the course of six weeks' traveling 

 on the steppes of the upper Yellow River and the Yangtze." Dolan 

 also remarks (oral communication, 1937) that the main Yak country 

 is now north-central Tibet. 



