158 THE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



breed. Each carried upwards of forty pounds of 

 salt, done up in two leather bags, slung on either 

 side, and secured by a band going over the chest, 

 and another round the loins, so that they cannot 

 slip off when going up or down hill. These sheep 

 are very tame, patient creatures, travelling twelve 

 miles a day with great ease, and being indifferent 

 to rocky ground." 



Although resembling the preceding breeds in 

 the relative shortness of the tail, which is almost 

 bare beneath, and only a little longer than that of 

 the wild urial and argali, the Barwal sheep of that 

 part of the eastern Himalaya termed by Hodgson 

 the Cachar,^ that is to say the northern districts of 

 that section of the sub- Himalaya lying between 

 Kumaon and Sikhim (inclusive of both), is a very 

 different type. It is essentially a highland sheep, 

 which will not breed in the hot outer hills, let alone 

 in the plains of India. In point of height it is 

 somewhat inferior to the Hunia, but this is more 

 than counterbalanced by its superior stoutness of 

 build. The adult rams are specially characterised 

 by their large, massive horns (pi. xi. fig. 3), which 

 are almost in contact with one another at their 

 bases, whence they rise without obliquity to curve 

 forwards along the sides of the head, so as to 

 form a single complete turn, although there may 



■ This must not be confused with the province of Cachar, to the 

 east of the Bramaputra valley. 



