HUNTING THE WILD YAK 
1033 
stopped twenty paces away, grunting madly, wildly rolled 
his eyes, snorted, drew in his breath violently, flung up the 
sand with his nose and horns, till he enveloped himself in 
a perfect cloud of it, and lashed his sides furiously with 
his tail. 
At about thirty paces’ distance Islam put in yet another 
shot, which made the yak spin round a good rhany times. 
Yolldash made a dash at him ; but when the maddened 
bull advanced to meet him with his horns lowered and his 
tail in the air, Yolldash instantly turned and fled. The 
tenth shot broke the bull’s left leg, so that it hung 
loosely when, m the madness of despair, he danced round 
another two or three times. Finally, at closer quarters, 
Islam let drive for the eleventh time. The bullet 
penetrated behind the shoulder, and lodging in a more 
vital part, put an end to the animal’s torment. He fell on 
his right side. When we approached him, he made 
a last effort to get up, but could not do so. Shortly after 
that he died, quietly, without any death-struggle. 
I made a couple of sketches of him from different 
points of view. He was a magnificent animal. His incisors 
were worn down almost level with his gums, proving him 
to be an old bull ; indeed the outermost two were 
embedded in the flesh. His horns too were slightly burst 
open on the inner side, another sign of advanced age. 
Iskender, one of the Taghliks, who had taken part in 
many a yak hunt, declared that the bull was about twenty 
years old. The wild yak, he said, lives on an average 
six years longer than the tame yak, and the latter at 
twenty years of age is regarded as worn out. 
I took the following measurements of the animal. 
Length from the edge of the upper lip to the root of 
the tail, 10 ft. Sin. Length of the tail, including the 
tuft at the end, 3 ft. 6 in. ; circumference of the tail at 
the root, 7-5 in. Length of head from the base of the 
horn to the upper lip, aS^- in. Distance between the 
eyes, 1 7 in. Length of horn on the outside, 30^ in. , 
on the inside, From this it will be apparent that 
the horns were very much curved. Circumference of horn 
II. -24 
