280 Major Biddulph —Hematics on Ovis Poll. [Dec. 
the atoms to move through appreciable spaces (Crookes’ dark space), before 
collision and light being produced. 
The Natural History Secretary (Mr. Wood-Mason) drew atten¬ 
tion to a remarkably fine head of Ovis Poll which had that day been 
presented to the Indian Museum by Major Biddulph, who had just brought 
it down from Gilgit. The horns measured nearly 68 inches along the outer 
curve, that is to say, more than 4 inches more, though from the more closely 
wound spiral which they described they were rather less in expanse, than 
those of the great head of the same species presented to the National Collec¬ 
tion by Colonel T. E. Gordon, who procured it when he took part in the 
Second Yarkand Mission. Mr. Wood-Mason also exhibited a head of the 
Suleman form (Capra megaceros) of the ‘ Markhor’ (C. Palconeri) to show 
the difference between its horns and those of a fine head of the Cashmere 
variety (Capra Palconeri) exhibited by Major Biddulph. 
Major Biddulph said,—the head to which Mr. Wood-Mason has called 
attention was sent in to me last year by the Chief of Hunza, in the northern 
part of whose territories great numbers of Ovis Poli are to be found. I 
cannot conceive that it will be easily possible to find a finer head than this, 
which is several inches longer than the one presented in 1875 to the Bri¬ 
tish Museum by Lieut.-Colonel T. E. Gordon, as the measurements given 
below will show. This head, however, has not the horns quite so thick at 
the base, and they taper more gradually than in the British Museum head. 
They also measure slightly less from tip to tip. The strength of the neck 
muscles* must be enormous to allow of so great a weight being easily car¬ 
ried, and it is doubtless owing to this weight that the O. Poli and other 
great wild Sheep that I have noticed have a very erect carriage. A tape 
passed across from tip to tip shows that the muzzle of the animal must 
project considerably beyond the straight line, so that the native legend of 
animals dying on account of their not being able to feed by reason of the 
projection of their horns, cannot be true. 
0. T. head present- 
0. P. head in Brit. 
ed to Ind. Mus. by 
Mus. presented by 
Major Biddulph. 
Col. Gordon. 
Length of horn round curve, .. 
67 3| 
63 
N. B. One horn 
Circumference at "base,. 
16 
16 li 
measures J inch 
Ditto at 1 foot, . 
15 5f 
15 li 
less than the 
Ditto at 2 feet, . 
H li 
14 3| 
other. 
Ditto at 3 feet, . 
12 3f 
12 3J 
Ditto at 4 feet, . 
0 li 
9 
From tip to tip in a straight line, 
53 3J 
54 
* But especially of the ligamentum nuchae , which mainly sustains the weight of the 
head.—(J. W.-M.) ' 
