CHAPTER VI 



AMONG THE SNOW PEAKS 



The animal described in Dr. Jerdon's ' Mammals of India ' 

 as the Ther or Gharal, Hemitragus jemlaicus, is a true 

 wild goat, here called ' thar ' by the natives. He pos- 

 sesses true caprine characteristics, a long shaggy coat, 

 and trigonal horns turned back, peculiar in being very 

 short and thick. He is about the size of a Lincoln sheep, 

 but taller, and inhabits rocks and precipices of the steepest 

 character right at the top of the tree line, here 13,000 feet 

 high. He is, however, partly a forest animal, not always 

 a frequenter of open grass-covered hills, like the various 

 wild sheep. The thar is gregarious. In the summer the 

 females and young ones are found in herds of ten to a 

 hundred, and the males in smaller herds, generally higher 

 up. In the rains the old thar becomes almost solitary, 

 lying all day in the thick timber, and appearing at early 

 morn and evening on the grassy slopes above to graze, 

 and again retreat to the thickets. At the end of the 

 monsoon an old buck thar is a very big, heavy beast, 

 very fat, almost black, and with long black hair hanging 

 down so as almost to cover his thick legs. He is then 

 very difficult to approach, and a noble quarry for the 

 shikari, who must work hard to procure a specimen. 

 The females, called by the Kumaon natives ' therina,' are 

 more easily approached, and resemble in their habits 

 very much the chamois of the Alps. 



