338 
Dr Traill’s Account of the Gour of India. 
The size of the gour is its most striking peculiarity. The 
dimensions of those killed on that excursion were unfortunately 
not noted ; but the following measurement of a gour, not fully 
grown, which was killed on another occasion, by one of these 
gentlemen, will shew the enormous bulk of the animal. 
Feet. Inches. 
Height from the hoof to the withers, - - 5 Ilf 
— — from the withers to the sternum, - 3 6 
Extreme length from the nose to the end of the tail, 11 11 1 
Captain Rogers assures me, that several of the gours killed 
on Myn Pat were considerably larger than the dimensions here 
assigned. 
The form of the gour is not so lengthened as that of the 
urna. Its back is strongly arched, so as to form a pretty uni- 
form curve, from the nose to the origin of the tail, when the 
animal stands still, This appearance is partly owing to the 
curved form of the nose and forehead, and still more to a re- 
markable ridge, of no great thickness, which rises six or seven 
inches above the general line of the back, from the last of the 
cervical to beyond the middle of the dorsal vertebrae, from 
which it gradually is lost in the outline of the back. This pe- 
culiarity proceeds from an unusual elongation of the spinous 
processes of the dorsal column. It was very conspicuous in the 
gours of all ages, although they were loaded with fat ; and has 
2 io resemblance to the hunch which is found on some of the do- 
mestic cattle of India. It bears some resemblance certainly to 
the ridge described as existing on the gaijal ; but the gour is 
said to be distinguished from that animal by the remarkable 
peculiarity of the total want of a dewlap. Neither male nor 
female gour, of any age, has the slightest trace of this append- 
age, which is found in every other known animal of this ge- 
nus. 
The colour of the gour is a very deep brownish-black, al- 
most approaching to bluish black, except a tuft of curling dirty 
white hair between the horns, and rings of the same colour just 
over the hoofs. “ The hair over the skin is extremely short and 
sleek, and has somewhat of the oily appearance of a fresh seal- 
skin/’ 
