OXEN. 
187 
up to an elevation of nearly twenty thousand feet. On the banks of the streams 
in many places a more luxuriant grass is met with, and it is particularly plentiful 
in the valleys of Chang-Chenmo and Kyobrung, forming the attraction which 
entices the yak from the still wilder and more barren country further north. Yak 
seem to wander about a good deal. In summer the cows are generally to be found 
in herds varying in numbers from ten to one hundred; while the old bulls are for 
the most part solitary or in small parties of three or four. They feed at night and 
early in the morning, and usually betake themselves to some steep and barren hill¬ 
side during the day, lying sometimes for hours in the same spot. Old bulls in 
particular seem to rejoice in choosing a commanding situation for their resting- 
place, and their tracks may be found on the tops of the steepest hills, far above 
the highest traces of vegetation. The yak is not apparently a very sharp-sighted 
beast, but its sense of smell is extremely keen, and this is the chief danger 
to guard against in stalking it. In the high valleys of Tibet, where so many 
glens intersect one another, and where the temperature is continually changing, 
the wind is equally variable. It will sometimes shift to every point of the 
compass in the course of a few minutes, and the best-planned stalk may be utterly 
spoiled.” 
The yak found in the Chang-Chenmo valley are chiefly or entirely stragglers 
from Chinese territory, and, owing to incessant pursuit, very few are to be met with 
at the present day in these regions. Native travellers report, however, that on the 
upper Indus, to the eastward of Ladak, yak are to be found in vast numbers, and 
that there they do not exhibit the extreme wariness characterising those which 
wander into Ladak. In Northern Tibet yak have been also met with in great 
numbers by the Russian explorer, Prejewalski. Here the old bulls were found 
alone, and the cows and younger males generally in small herds ; although, where 
the pasture was good, the herds were sometimes very large. These herds wandered 
more or less regularly over wide tracts of country, and, according to native reports, 
were found in summer in grassy plains, where they were quite unknown in winter. 
As in Southern Tibet, they were especially partial to the tracts bordering the 
streams, where grass was more abundant than elsewhere. On the other hand, the 
solitary bulls were reported to inhabit the same districts throughout the year. 
Where the herds were largest, their numbers are said to be reckoned by hundreds, 
and even thousands. When alarmed or expecting danger, the cows and older bulls 
place themselves in the van and on the flanks of the herds, with the calves in the 
centre; but on the near approach of a hunter, the whole herd will take to flight 
at a gallop, with their heads down and their tails in the air. A wounded yak, 
whether cow or bull, will, according to General Kinloch, not unfrequently 
charge. 
A peculiarity of the yak is its grunting voice, from which it 
derives its Latin title. Domestic yak are kept by the inhabitants of 
the higher regions of Tibet as beasts of burden, and for the sake of their flesh ; and 
are absolutely essential for crossing many parts of that desolate region. Some of 
the pure-bred animals kept by the Tartar tribes, living on the Rupsu plateau, to 
the south of the Indus in Ladak, are magnificent beasts of large size and uniformly 
dark colour. When they have not been used for a considerable period they are 
