63 



to7ii V. becchi or ' boucs').' More recently, an animal called the 

 Rasse was indicated, from report, in Sir Alexander Burnes's ' Tra- 

 vels in Bokhara,' ii. 208, and its horns have since been transmitted 

 to the Royal Asiatic Society by Lieut. Wood, of Sir A. Burnes's 

 party, through the medium of G. T. Vigne, Esq. In this magnifi- 

 cent specimen of a frontlet I recognize (though with some hesitation) 

 the Ovis sculptorum, formerly described by me from a horn in the 

 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons ; but as the characters 

 of that specimen, as originally drawn up by me, have not hitherto 

 been published ; as its flexure, too, which suggested the appellation 

 of sculptorum, would appear to form a less extended spiral than is 

 probably normal, and the habitat also proves to be different from that 

 anticipated, — namely, the Taurus, which I have still reason to sus- 

 pect contains a large undescribed species of this genus, — I here pro- 

 pose to dedicate the present splendid animal to the illustrious Vene- 

 tian traveller of the thirteenth century, by the name of Ovis Polii. 



" As compared with the Rocky Mountain Sheep of North America, 

 the Rass or Roosh of Pamir differs in having the horns considerably 

 less massive, but more prolonged, approaching more in character to 

 those of the domestic 0. Aries, but differing again from the latter, not 

 only in their very superior size, but in having their two front angles 

 about equally developed. As in the Rocky Mountain species, and I 

 believe also the O. Aries normally, the pair at first diverge back- 

 ward, and then descend and gyre round at a parallel with the axis 

 of the body, inclining, as they again spire backwards, more outward 

 to the tip. The horns described were in their seventh year of 

 growth, and measure 4 feet 8 inghes in length, following the 

 cun'ature, and 14^ inches round at base, having the tips, which are 

 continued round till they point obliquely backwards, 45 inches apart. 

 The width of their upper plane is 3-^- inches at base, 2^ inches at the 

 distance of one foot from the base, and 2^ inches at 2 feet distance 

 from the base ; the depth of the base inside is 5 inches, and distance 

 apart of the pair, measured outside, where they gyre forward at a 

 parallel, 21 inches. The years of growth are successively 15^, lOj, 

 13, 8, 5, 3, and the last (incomplete) 1, inches. The College of 

 Surgeons' specimen, a single horn, was in its eighth year of growth, 

 but measures only 4 feet 4 inches round the curvature ; its depth 

 towards the base is 6 inches, and greatest width, about the middle, 

 2|- inches. The successive annual growths are 12^, 9, 8, 8, 7, 5, 

 3g, and the incipient eighth 1, inches. It is curved in a spiral in- 

 volution, and scarcely outwards for three-fifths of a circle, when it 

 gradually inclines more so to the tip, the horn describing one circle 

 and about a third. When upon the head, it must accordingly have 

 gyred considerably inward, instead of descending at a parallel with 

 the other, as indeed is almost invariably the case with the domestic 

 0. Aries. Both specimens are of a pale colour, and indented with 

 rugged transverse striae, in general half an inch apart. Of the 

 animal nothing further is yet known. Considering, indeed, the dif- 

 ferences of the two specimens, it is by no means improbable that 

 they will yet prove to be of al.'ied rather than of the same species,. 



