The Wild Goats and Sheep of Dardistan 87 



tending to meet behind the neck; but the dis- 

 tinction cannot really hold good, for I have 

 myself shot urial with this inward twist in 

 the Gilgit district. The fact is, that all the 

 local varieties of this big breed have their own 

 characteristics, horns long and short, with bold 

 frontal angles and of round section, thick and 

 thin, deeply corrugated and smooth. The pelage 

 also varies, most markedly so in the ruffs car- 

 ried by old rams, which in Dardistan are black, 

 while at the other extreme, those of the Kopet 

 Dagh rams are snowy white. 



The ground urial live on in Dardistan is gen- 

 erally less rocky and more open than that the 

 wild goats are found on. They love the sandy 

 plains or straths covered with zhun, an aro- 

 matic wormwood which, from a distance, might 

 be taken for heather. Steep clay cliffs and 

 precipitous ravines form their retreat in the 

 daytime, and a remarkably effective one, as in 

 such ground, when lying still, they are almost 

 invisible turned, in fact, into stones. They 

 are, consequently, very difficult to pick up ; but 

 this is true of all mountain game, except when 

 on the snow or on very open ground. When 

 in pursuit of all these beasts, the expanse of 

 ground that can be spied is usually very great, 

 so that the most careful and minute examination 



