A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



Ovis Polii (which latter, I believe, is the smaller 

 animal of the two), and without their graceful 

 outward sweep, are tremendously massive. Start- 

 ing upwards and backwards, after the usually 

 accepted type of ram's horn, the horns of a full- 

 grown nyan are from eighteen to twenty inches 

 in circumference at the base, and curve downwards 

 and forwards again till they form an almost 

 complete circle ; in fact, in one head that I possess 

 both horns (though some inches are broken off at 

 the tips, as is almost invariably the case with old 

 rams) entirely cover the eyes and more than 

 complete the circle. 



The ewes are almost equal to the rams in stature, 

 but are distinguishable from a long way off by the 

 absence of the white ruff and the general dark 

 colouring of the head and neck. They, too, carry 

 horns, which, however, are not massive like those 

 of the rams, but grow upwards and backwards, 

 and are only some twenty inches in length. I 

 have come across no animal the length of whose 

 horns is so difficult to judge from a distance, even 

 with the aid of a good glass, as those of the nyan 

 ram. The " Badminton Library " attributes this 

 fact to the colour of the horns, but I am inclined 

 to think that it has something to do with the 

 peculiar sweep of their curve. 



The burhel (Ovis nakura) or, as they are called 

 in Ladakh, " napoo," have a very wide range, 

 extending from Zanskar and the borders of Baltistan 



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