272 WANDERINGS OF A 



tinge on the head. In its native state it is shy and timid, 

 and the same to some degree when domesticated. It would 

 appear, however, that the wounded animal is ferocious, as 

 Peyton informed me that one wounded by him charged im- 

 petuously with its head down, and that he saved himself only 

 by jumping aside, when the infuriated animal, pursuing its 

 headlong course, fell down a precipice and was killed. The 

 zho, pronounced " zo " by the natives, is the hybrid between 

 the female of the common shorthorn of Ladakh and the male 

 yak, and is the chief beast of burden in the southern districts. 

 We were informed by the Ladakhees that the cross is fertile, 

 but Moorcroft, who devoted much attention to these subjects, 

 says the progeny soon degenerates. 



The shawl-goat, and a dwarf variety (black, with short 

 horns), also a race of black-faced sheep, and the dumba, or 

 broad-tail, are reared in great numbers. Four horned varieties 

 of this sheep are not uncommon. The "black-face," or 

 hunniah, stands much higher than any I have seen elsewhere, 

 and is a handsome animal. We brought a herd of shawl- 

 goats and two of these sheep to the Punjaub. Although 

 the former throve very well, all the sheep rapidly lost flesh 

 and pined away within a month after their arrival on the 

 plains. Moreover, the yak seldom survives beyond a few 

 months, and even rapidly degenerates in the valley of Cash- 

 mere. The heat and insects are evidently its greatest enemies 

 in the tame as weU as wild state ; and we observed that 

 none of these animals, not even the goats, seemed to care for 

 the luxuriant vegetation of the lowlands, preferring whatever 

 resembles their Tartaric furze and bent to the rich clover and 

 grasses of Cashmere. 



After leaving Ghia the pathway leads up a wild-looking 

 valley to the Tang Lang Pass, at the foot of which we en- 



