REVIEW. — MOORCROFT’S TRAVELS. 
329 
The males are applied almost solely to the transport of burdens. 
The neat cattle are kept entirely for milk and butter, the consump- 
tion of which latter, especially with tea, is very considerable. The 
Zho is a hybrid, between the male yak and the cow : the male 
is employed as a gelding for carrying loads and for ploughing, in 
which latter occupation he is remarkable for docility and endur- 
ance. The female Zho is not, strictly speaking, a mule, but her 
progeny. 
“The native breeds of sheep, though larger than those of India, 
are much smaller than the sheep of Chan-than. There is one 
species, however, the purik, which is very diminutive, and is re- 
markable for its complete domestication. This, when of full 
growth, has scarcely attained the size of a South-down lamb of 
five or six months : the bone is small, and carcass large in respect 
to its bulk, and its mutton is most excellent. It gives two lambs 
within twelve months, and is twice shorn during that period. The 
clip may afford three pounds in the annual aggregate, and the first 
yield is fine enough for tolerably good shawls : the whole of the 
wool is worked up into narrow cloth for home consumption. 
“The dog is scarcely more perfectly domesticated than this little 
animal. During the day in the summer months it is pastured 
amongst the mountains, but at night, and throughout the winter, 
it finds shelter in a walled yard, or under the roof of its master. 
In this state it seeks with incessant assiduity grass, straw, chaff, 
grain, peelings of esculent vegetables, and always attends the 
meals of the family for morsels of flour-cake, barley-meal, tea but- 
tered and salted, or exhausted tea leaves, and will sometimes even 
nibble a bone. It would be an invaluable appendage to the cottage 
of the British peasant, as it could be maintained at scarcely any 
cost*. 
“ The common breed of goat in this and the neighbouring counties 
of Lassa, Chan-than, and Chinese Turkestan, is the shawl-wool 
goat, the fleece of which in Ladakh is much finer. The fleece is 
cut once a year; the wool picked out is sent to Kashmir, but the 
hair is made into ropes, coarse sacks, and blankets for home con- 
sumption. The dogs are large, with a shaggy coat of a dark colour, 
and are in general of a fierce but intelligent disposition. 
“ The wild animals are not numerous ; they are principally of the 
goat kind, which are much larger than the domestic goat, and yield 
a finer wool. The Ibex frequents the loftiest and most inaccessible 
crags; the male is called Skin, and the female L’Danmo. The 
* A letter on the puric sheep, and other topics relating to Ladakh, from Mr. 
Moorcroft to J. Fleming, Esq., is published in the first volume of the 
“ Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society,” p. 49. — Ed. 
VOL. XXI. Y y 
