1006 On the fame Sheep, §-c. of Tibet. [Oct- 



ty or moistness, and has the narrow nostrils curving laterally upwards, 

 The chaffron, or bridge of the nose, is moderately arched or bombed, 

 but more so than in the wild race ; and the forehead is less flat and less 

 broad than in the Argalis, being slightly arched both lengthwise and 

 across. The longish narrow and pointed ears differ from those of the 

 wild race, only by being partially or wholly pendent, whereas in the wild 

 race they are erect or horizontal and much more mobile, acting effici- 

 ently like moveable funnels to catch every sound, a security denied to 

 the several tame races, which, looking to man for their protection, seem 

 to lose the mobility of the ear, as a consequence of disuse or less fre- 

 quent and active use of the organ. The eyes, of good size and suffici- 

 ent prominency of orbit, are seated near to the base of the horns and 

 remote from the muzzle ; and beneath them is the eye pit, strongly 

 marked both in the skin and scull, and carrying off a specific secretion, 

 though both the gland and its vent or pore are apt to escape observa- 

 tion, owing to the woolly coverture of the creeks prevailing throughout 

 the eye pits, even in their interior. The neck is rather thin and short. 

 The body moderately full and somewhat elongated. The limbs rather 

 long and fine, hardly less so than in the wild race, and not remarkably 

 rigid or perpendicular, except perhaps by comparison with those deer- 

 like races. The hoofs compressed and high. The false hoofs small 

 and obtuse. The feet pits are common to all four feet, and small only 

 by comparison with those of Deer and Antelopes, large in comparison 

 with those of Goats,* and provided with a distinct gland, yielding a 

 specific secretion which is viscid and aqueous when fresh, candid when 

 dry, and nearly void of odour. Not so the secretion of the groin 

 glands-organs, which in the Hunia are conspicuous, and yield a greasy 

 fetid subaqueous matter, which passes off constantly by a vaguely de- 

 fined pore, quite similar to that of the axine deer, but less definite in 

 form than in the true Antelopes ; of which the Indian Black, or Sasin, 

 offers an excellent and familiar exemplar. 



The possession of these organs has been denied to the sheep by most 

 writers. Wherefore I have been more particular in describing them ; 

 and may add, that they belong to the two wild and six tame races of 

 these regions without exception ; and may, therefore, be considered 

 emphatically normal. Sheep are pre-eminently Alpine animals, and it 

 * See accompanying sketches. 



