THE ARGALI. 



117 



four feet high at the shoulders. Its horns are about the 

 same length ; that is, they measure nearly four feet if 

 taken along the curve ; at their base they are about nine- 

 teen inches in circumference. "Firmly," we are told, "as 

 these weapons are fixed upon the animal's forehead, they 

 are sometimes fairly broken off in the fierce conflicts which 



these creatures wage with each other when they fight for 

 the possession of some desirable female. These broken 

 horns are not suffered to lie unobserved on the gi^ound, but 

 are soon utilized by the foxes and other small mammalia 

 which inliabit the same country, and converted at once 

 into dwelling-houses, where they lie as comfortably as the 

 hermit-crab in a whelk-shell. Man also makes use of these 



