414 YAK. 



furniture, upon horses and elephants ; yet the best 

 requital with which the care of their keepers is at 

 length rewarded, for selecting them good pastures, 

 is in the abundant quantity of rich milk which 

 they give, and the butter produced from it, which 

 is most excellent. It is their custom to preserve 

 this in skins or bladders ; and the air being thus 

 excluded from it, it will keep in this cold climate 

 throughout the year; so that, after some time 

 tending their herds, when a sufficient store is ac- 

 cumulated, it remains only to load their cattle, 

 and drive them to a proper market with their own 

 produce, which constitutes, to the utmost verge 

 of Tartary, a most material article of produce. " 



The orientals are said to hold in high estima- 

 tion a large kind of bezoar of the size of a goose- 

 egg, which is sometimes found in this animal's sto- 

 mach. The Yak varies in colour, as well as in 

 the length and form of the horns. Those with 

 white tails are most esteemed ; and it sometimes 

 happens that the horns are as white as ivory. 



According to Dr. Pallas, the calves, when first 

 born, are covered with a strong woolly hair, 

 nearly resembling that of a water spaniel, and in 

 three months begin to acquire the long hair of the 

 throat, lower parts, and tail. 



From the figures given by Gmelin, in the Me- 

 moirs of the Academy of Petersburg, and appa- 

 rently copied by Mr. Pennant, it should seem that 

 the elevation on the shoulders is not universal, 

 and it is- probable that there are in this, as well as 



