54 HARMONIES. 



A few minutes of breathless excitement. The hunter 

 shews himself on yonder peak. The noble buck trots 

 majestically towards you, his head thrown up, and his 

 fine horns spreading far on each side of his back. He 

 stops — sniffs — starts ; but too late ! the rifle-ball has 

 sped, and his hoofs are kicking up the blood-stained 

 snow in dying convulsions.* 



In our homely sheep, it must be confessed, the utili- 

 tarian element prevails over the poetic ; but with the 

 burr ell, or wild sheep, of the Himalaya Peaks, the case is 

 far otherwise. Twice the size of an English ram, with 

 horns of such vastness, that into the cavity of those Which 

 lie bleaching on the frozen rocks, the fox sometimes creeps 

 for shelter, -f- dwelling in the most inaccessible regions, 

 the snow-covered ranges of the loftiest mountains in the 

 world, or the mighty spurs that jut out from them, shy 

 and jealous of the approach of man, whom it discerns at 

 an immense distance, — the burrell is considered as the 

 first of Himalayan game animals, and the killing of it the 

 ne 'plus ultra of Himalayan shooting. 



How grand are the regions in which it dwells ! An en- 

 thusiastic and successful sportsman furnishes us with the 

 following vivid picture of the wild sheep and its home : — 



" We started early to reach the source of the mighty 

 Ganges. The opposite bank being the best ground for 

 burrell, we were in great hopes that we might find suffi- 

 cient snow left to enable us to cross the river ; but the 



• See " Notes on Norway," by A. C. Smith, in the Zoologist for 1851. 

 f Hooker, Ilimal. Jour., i. p. 243. 



