PLAINS OF GYANIMA 



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and stood nearly as high. His feet were like those of a 

 calf, and his track much bigger than a red deer's ; the 

 toes are less pointed and more upright. The horns were 

 massive, and curled in a beautiful curve, almost circular. 



The old rams get immensely heavy and thick horns, 

 weighing over thirty pounds, and the natives say that 

 they have often come across cases of the animal dying 

 of starvation because his horns grew so large that they 

 prevented him grazing, the mouth not reaching the ground. 

 Indeed, we saw very old and weather-beaten heads lying 

 on the ground which agreed with this description. The 

 great sheep found further north in Central Asia, and known 

 as the Ovis Poli, seems to be only a variety of the same 

 species, the horns spreading outwards from the skull in 

 a pattern similar to that of the common domestic sheep of 

 Tibet, of which great flocks exist all over these plains. 

 The varieties of curve in the horns of domestic sheep 

 and cattle in different countries, which are without dis- 

 pute the same species, are quite as marked and persistent 

 as those of the Ovis Ammon and Poli. 



Dr. Jerdon describes the nyang or Ovis Ammon as 

 measuring 12 to 13 hands high, and 6 feet in length, 

 differing very little, except in size, from the Rocky 

 Mountain sheep (to which I can agree, having shot both). 

 The latter are only about 10 hands, but have very massive 

 horns. Other forms of sheep exist in Armenia, Kam- 

 schatka, and the plains of the Pamirs, which may all be 

 the same species and the prototypes of domestic sheep, 

 except that the latter has a long woolly tail, whereas the 

 wild sheep has a short tail like a deer. The horns of the 

 Ovis Ammon have been known to measure 24 inches in 

 girth at base, and 45 inches round the curve. There is 

 another wild sheep in the Punjab which has similar 

 horns, but much smaller — the urial of the Salt range. 



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