220 
UNGULATES. 
splendid sheep are the Chang-Chenmo valley and the neighbourhood of the Pang- 
kong lake, and thence into Chinese Tibet. A wild hybrid between a male of this 
sheep and a female of the under-mentioned urial, was shot in Zanskar, and described 
as a distinct species under the name of 0. brookei ; while there is also a record of 
a hybrid between the male urial and the female nyan. 
A fossil argali occurs in the forest-bed of the Norfolk coast, and 
Fossil Argali ® 
remains of other species have been obtained from the superficial 
deposit of the continent. 
The Pamir Wild Sheep (Ovis poli). 
Although discovered by the great Venetian traveller as long ago as the latter 
part of the thirteenth century, it is only since the year 1873 that the great Pamir 
wild sheep has been fully known to science. In that year it was described by the 
Russian naturalist Severtzoff, under the name of Karelin’s sheep (0. karelini ); 
while specimens of the skin and horns obtained during the second expedition to 
Yarkand, under the late Sir Douglas Forsyth in 1873-74, were soon afterwards 
received in England. It is true, indeed, that the species was named by Mr. E. 
Blyth in 1840, but it was then only very imperfectly known. Since 1873 our 
knowledge has advanced rapidly; and this magnificent sheep has been shot by 
two Englishmen—Mr. St. George Littledale and Major C. S. Cumberland—who 
travelled to the Pamir for the express purpose of securing skins and horns. 
The Pamir sheep, although furnished with longer horns, does not appear to 
attain quite such large dimensions as the Tibetan argali, from which it is mainly 
distinguished by the form of the horns, and also by coloration. In the male the 
horns, when viewed from the side, are seen to form a spiral of about a circle and 
a quarter; and when adult they are much longer than those of the argali, but are 
less massive at the base. In fine specimens the horns may measure from 50 to 60 
inches in length along the curve, with a basal girth of about 15 inches; a specimen 
has, however, been recorded measuring 63 inches in length, while one pair attained 
the enormous length of 73 inches, with a basal girth of 16f inches; and another 
75 inches, with a girth of 16 inches. Females, as shown in our illustration, have 
small upright horns like those of the female argali. The colour of the fur on the 
upper-parts of the rams is light brown, with a more or less marked reddish tinge; 
but there is a dark line of longer hair extending from the nape of the neck to the 
withers, which in the female is sometimes continued as a stripe down the back. 
The muzzle, together with the fore-part of the neck, the chest, the under-parts, the 
rump inclusive of the tail, and the legs, are white. The patch of white on the 
rump is of irregular contour; and sometimes, as in our figure, there may be a small 
black mark on the upper surface of the tail. In summer it is probable, according 
to Mr. Blanford, that the colour is darker and browner. The ewes differ by the 
absence of any white on the throat. In addition to the long hairs on the nape of 
the neck, the old males have a more or less marked ruff on the throat. In an adult 
male measured by Mr. Blanford, in which the horns had a length of 48 inches, the 
height at the withers was 3 feet 8 inches, and the length from the horns to the tip 
of the tail 5 feet 2 inches, of which 5J inches was taken up by the tail itself. As 
