CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 83 



HORNED GAME 



There is great variety of horned game in 

 India, including the ponderous " bison" and 

 buffalo, the splendid goats and sheep in the 

 mountains, with sambur in the forest and ante- 

 lopes on the plains. Some of the mountain 

 sheep must be endowed with enormous 

 strength to endure life at such altitudes. Dr. 

 Longstaff tells me that, in Tibet, he has seen 

 burrhel up to eighteen thousand feet, and even 

 higher, and the gradients that these creatures 

 have to climb for their daily food are simply 

 appalling. Of all the trophies, sportsmen most 

 prize the spreading horns of Ovis poll and 

 Ovis ammon, or the spiral horns of the mark- 

 hor, a wild goat found in the mountains of 

 Kashmir and Ladak. Like the burrhel, these 

 sheep inhabit tremendous heights above sea- 

 level, and they gallop over the rough and 

 broken ground at an amazing pace, never 

 seeming to miss their footing even when hotly 

 pursued. The first two sheep grow horns 

 measuring seventy-five inches and fifty inches 

 respectively, and the black and twisted horns 

 of the markhor may exceed sixty inches. This 

 animal is found at the highest limit of the pine 

 forests, along the edge of which its flocks 

 graze early and late, resting during the heat 

 of the day. This also is the way of the so- 



