Dr. N. Severtzoff on the Mammals of Turkestan. 225 



0. KarcUni. Of one of these flocks I shot a .spcciiiu'ii, now 

 in my collection ; and the animal fell only to the second hullct. 



The old male killed hy me I hit five times, each time with 

 a <^ood-sizcd bullet ; and only the sixth bullet brougiit it down, 

 havin«i; j)enetiated to the heart. 



The first bullet hit the animal between tin- hind logs in the 

 left testicle, the riji;ht one not beinj; damai^a^d at all ; the ])ain of 

 this wound impeiU'd the animal in runnini;- ; and even then two 

 men bad to follow it for al^out one hour. 'J'wo bullets had struck 

 the horns; i>ne of the two bullets was flattened and only left 

 a mark on the horn, whilst the other partly buried itself in 

 the horn and afterwards fell out without doing any consider- 

 able damage. Each time the horn was struck by tlie bullet 

 the animal fell to the ground, but within a minute rose again. 

 Neither of the two following bullets sulHccd to stop the animal 

 in its flight, although one of them jienctrated the liver and 

 the other the lung ; and it was only on receipt of tlie sixth 

 bullet (which, as already mentioned, penetrated the heart) that 

 the animal succumbed. These particulars give a slight idea 

 of the strength and tenacity of this slieep. 



In order to get a shot at it it is necessary to approach it 

 from behind some rock ; this is easily done at the Aksay, 

 where the sheep are not pursued at all, and therefore do not 

 avoid spots which atVord hiding-places for a man ; but on 

 the plains of Han-tengri, whicli in summer are regularly 

 visited by the different Kirgees tribes, these sliecp are very 

 cautious, as is also the case with 0. Kurelini on the Upper 

 Karin, in which locality we saw great numbers of the latter 

 species, but could not obtain any specimens. 



The speed of O. FoUi is very great ; but the difficulty in 

 overtaking wounded specimens may be partly attributed to 

 the distressing cfl'ect of the rarefied air upon the horses, while 

 it has a])parently no efl:ect whatever on the sheep. 



The Cossacks here say that the wild sheep and goats in 

 jum])ing from one rock down to another alight on their horns. 

 This seems very improbable to me ; but still there is also some 

 reason to believe it — namely, that in jumping the head with 

 the heavy horns might make the animal lose its balance. 



The weight of an old specimen killed and grallochcd by me 

 was too nnich for a strong mountain-camci, the animal re- 

 quiring four hours to accomplish four versts, and being obliged 

 to lie down several times during the journey. At low 

 elevations a camel can carry 17 ])Oods with ease, but in 

 these lofty ])lains not more than 11 or 12 poods; the entire 

 w'cight of a male 0. PoUi will therefore be not less than 16 

 or 17 poods ; th« head and horns alone weigh over 2 poods. 

 [To be CDiitinuod.] 



