460 THIBETAN SHEEP. 



" never found at a lower elevation than 10,000 feet." * 

 The great Thibetan sheep (Ovis Hodgsonii], said to 

 be the largest wild sheep yet discovered, is another 

 of these creatures whose home is thus described by 

 Colonel Kinloch : 



" On the wild bleak uplands of Thibet, where for hundreds 

 of miles not a tree is to be met with, where in every direction, 

 as far as the eye can reach, there is nothing but a vast 

 expanse of barren soil, rock and snow; where there is no 

 shelter from the glare of a cloudless noon, nor from the 

 freezing winds that sweep the naked hills with relentless force 

 towards the close of day ; here, in the midst of solitude and 

 desolation, where animal life has to struggle for existence 

 under every disadvantage, is the home of this great wild sheep, "f 



Of the wild goat species we may mention the Tahr 

 (Capra Jemlaicd], the spiral-horned markhoor (Capra 

 Megaccros], and the straight-horned variety (Capra 

 Jerdoni), and last but not least, the splendid Himalayan 

 ibex (Capra Sibericd] whose finely curved horns some- 

 times measure 43 or 44 inches in length. All of these 

 are animals inhabiting the great Himalayan range and 

 are rarely found descending to the limits of the forest. 

 In North America we may cite a similar instance in 

 the big-horn, or great American wild sheep (Ovis 

 Montana] which inhabits the highlands of the Rocky 

 Mountains and other lofty hills in the far west. Colonel 

 Bodge considers that "this splendid animal ranks, 

 among the horned beasts of the Great West, next 

 in size to the elk." 



* Large Game Shooting in Thibet, the Himalayas and Northern 

 India, by Colonel Kinloch of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, Calcutta, 

 1885, p. 163. 



j Ibid., p. 170. 



The Htmting Grounds of the Great West, by Richard J. Dodge, 

 Lt>Col. U.S.A., 1877, p. 205. 



