THE "BLUE RIBBON" OF HIMALAYAN SPORT. 329 



rather unusual with the females of the majority of gregarious 

 wild animals. They drop one lamb yearly in spring. Al- 

 though Oves Ammon usually affect open and more or less 

 undulating ground, they often ascend the sloping mountain- 

 sides to very great heights ; but they are not much addicted 

 to nor adapted for climbing, like the other kinds of Hima- 

 layan wild sheep. In this respect the Ovis Ammon differs 

 from the animal nearest approaching it in appearance the 

 " big-horn " of the Eocky Mountains (Ovis montana), which is 

 a good climber. During the rutting season the rams are 

 much given to fighting, and their whereabouts may sometimes 

 be discovered by the clashing together of their horns, which, 

 when the air happens to be still, can be heard at a great 

 distance, though the animals may be hidden from view. The 

 Ovis Ammon is strictly a Tibetan animal, but, as it sometimes 

 frequents the more gentle slopes on the eastern side of the 

 Himalayas, it may be included among the game of those 

 mountains. 



This magnificent wild sheep, owing to the remoteness of its 

 haunts and the difficulty in circumventing it when you get 

 there, not to mention the grandness of its trophies when 

 secured, is perhaps more prized than any other Himalayan 

 game. In fact, the man who fairly stalks and kills his big 

 ram Ovis Ammon, may consider he has gained the " Blue 

 Eibbon," so to speak, of Himalayan sport. 



My friend Colonel E. Smyth told me he had once the 

 wonderfully good luck to secure two of these grand trophies 

 with one shot. On this occasion he had crossed the Lipu pass 

 from the Byans district of Kumaon to the large village of 

 Tuklakar in the Hunde's territory of Tibet. He had much 

 difficulty in persuading the authorities there to allow him to 

 go for sixteen days to hunt Hodgsonian antelopes in the 

 country eastward of the Mansorawar lake ; for these Chinese 

 Tartars are very jealous of foreign intrusion, well knowing 

 that where the thin end of the wedge once enters, the thick 



