HUNTING THE WILD YAK 
1035 
The tongue was set with extraordinarily hard, sharp 
barbs. Both tongue and gums were tinged a greyish- 
blue, as in the tame yak. The muzzle was very broad ; 
the nostrils rather longer, flattened, and turned upwards 
at a slightly oblique angle. The horns were extra- 
ordinarily powerful, and formidable by reason of their 
sharp points. The close woolly hair swept the ground 
when the animal stood, and, as I have said, made a 
soft cushion when he lay down. The tail was enormous ; 
the hoofs strong and powerful ; and of such the yak 
has need, to carry his immense weight over rough and 
stony ground. The two claws of the hoof can easily 
be drawn very close together, thus increasing the animal s 
hold upon the ground when climbing slippery rocks or 
crossing the slopes of loose mountain ddbris. Behind 
the hoofs proper were a pair of large secondary hoofs ; 
but they did not touch the ground. 
When the yak stands upright on its feet. Its shoulder 
forms a conspicuous solid arch, and from it the neck 
sweeps sharply down towards the head, which the animal 
always carries close to the ground. In a similar manner 
the back slopes away, though less abruptly, towards the 
root of the tail. The height in the pelvic region is 
thus much less than at the shoulder. An animal which 
attains the dimensions I have given must evidently be ex- 
ceedingly heavy. It took a single man all his time to 
raise the head of Islam’s yak bull; and when the men 
loaded the flayed skin on the back of the kneeling camel 
it required four of them to lift it ; the head however was 
still attached, that It might be better cured In camp. 
It is marvellous that such a huge beast can subsist and 
develop such enormous muscular strength on the miserable 
herbage which those highlands afford. In winter the grass 
is dead and withered, and even In summer so tough and 
bitter that our caravan animals would only eat it when 
driven to do so by extreme hunger. 
When the yak is pursued, it goes with a heavy clumsy 
sort of jog-trot, but gets swiftly over the ground , its 
tail hanging down and its head carried a little higher 
