214 EAST NEPAL. Chap. IX. 



its becoming very rancid, so that I found it palatable food : it 

 is called scJiat-tcheu (dried meat). I never observed the yak 

 to be annoyed by any insects ; indeed at the elevation it 

 inhabits, there are no large diptera, bots, or gadflies to infest 

 it. It loves steep places, delighting to scramble among 

 rocks, and to sun its black hide perched on the glacial 

 boulders which strew the Wallanchoon flat, and on which 

 these beasts always sleep. Their average value is from two 

 to three pounds, but the price varies with the season. In 

 autumn, when her calf is killed for food, the mother 

 will yield no milk, unless the herdsman gives it the calf s 

 foot to lick, or lays a stuffed skin before it, to fondle, which 

 it does with eagerness, expressing its satisfaction by short 

 grunts, exactly like those of a pig, a sound which replaces 

 the low uttered by ordinary cattle. The yak, though 

 indifferent to ice and snow and to changes of tempe- 

 rature, cannot endure hunger so long as the sheep, 

 nor pick its way so well upon stony ground. Neither 

 can it bear damp heat, for which reason it will not live in 

 summer below 7000 feet, where liver disease carries it off 

 after a very few years.* Lastly, the yak is ridden, especially 

 by the fat Lamas, who find its shaggy coat warm, and its 

 paces easy ; under these circumstances it is always led. 

 The wild yak or bison (D'hong) of central Asia, the superb 

 progenitor of this animal, is the largest native animal of Tibet, 



* Nevertheless, the yak seems to have survived the voyage to England. I find 

 in Turner's "Tibet" (p. 189), that a bull sent by that traveller to Mr. Hastings, 

 reached England alive, and after suffering from languor, so far recovered its health 

 and vigour as to become the father of many calves. Turner does not state by 

 what mother these calves were born, an important omission, as he adds that all 

 these died but one cow, which bore a calf by an Indian bull. A painting of the 

 yak (copied into Turner's book) by Stubbs, the animal painter, may be seen in the 

 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. The artist is probably a 

 little indebted to description for the appearance of its hair in a native state, for 

 it is represented much too even in length, and reaching to too uniform a depth 

 from the flanks. 



