206 By Mountain, Lake, and Plain 



As a matter of fact, neither of us got the 

 forty-incher that was the summit of our desires, 

 though we each got some fine heads within an 

 inch or so of this length. But that heads even 

 greater than our forty-inch ideal exists, is proved 

 by the fact that D. came on the skull of a ram 

 that was recently dead the flesh had not en- 

 tirely disappeared the horns of which measured 

 no less than 45J inches, a long way the biggest 

 "urial" that has ever been heard of. 



It seems however likely that these sheep are 

 not typical urial, neither are they Gmelin's sheep 

 (Ovis orientalis), but belong to a distinct sub- 

 species peculiar to this part of Central Asia. 

 After two visits to this country, I have arrived 

 at the conclusion curious as it may seem that 

 on this range two kinds of wild sheep exist 

 almost side by side. There is the true urial, 

 as found all over Eastern Persia, and there is 

 the Bujnurd race under notice. The latter have 

 bigger bodies and bigger and heavier horns, 

 besides a remarkable white ruff unlike the urial's 

 ruff, in which there are always, I think, a good 

 many black hairs. On the hillside their general 

 appearance and heavy gallop reminds one more 

 of Ammon or Poli than of the nimble urial. I 

 am inclined to think also that the two breeds 

 do not inhabit quite the same kind of ground. 



