The Wild Goats and Sheep of Dardistan 89 



constantly shifting their ground, so that it is 

 not an uncommon thing for the sportsman, when 

 in the middle of a carefully conceived stalk, to 

 come face to face with his herd where he least 

 expected it, usually with disastrous results. On 

 the other hand, the instinct of putting out a 

 sentry is less marked with the sheep than with 

 the goats. One good feature about urial shooting 

 is that the ground is rarely so big and dangerous 

 that a local man is a necessity as a guide among 

 the precipices, for after all there is a great charm 

 in running one's stalk. 



The gestation period in the sheep is longer 

 than that of the goats, the rutting season of 

 urial in the Dard country being in November 

 and the young being born in May. Generally 

 urial mutton is excellent in spite of their strongly 

 scented food, especially if the beasts are young. 

 Their skins are valueless even to the Dard, who 

 can turn most things to some account, and so 

 one commonly finds them used as prayer -mats. 

 The secretion from the eye - pit is believed by 

 shikaris to be an excellent salve for the human 

 eye, while that from the groin forms, to say 

 the least, an odd sort of perfume ! Like all 

 the sheep, urial can carry a lot of lead, and 

 a badly placed bullet will as a rule cause the 

 sportsman much expenditure of energy. It is 



