92 * O V 
rocks of Afiatic Siberia. This animal loves a ftate of fo- 
litude, and flees the haunts of men. According to pro- 
feflbr Pallas, nothing but the furrounding fea can account 
for the argali being found on an inhabited ifland, as is 
fometimes the cafe. But it is faid, that thefe animals alfo 
inhabit California. The Jefuits, who vifited that country 
in 1697, fay, that they found a fpecies of flieep as big as 
a calf of a year or two old, with a head like that of a flag, 
enormous horns like thofe of a ram, and tail and hair 
fliorter than that of a flag. This is very likely, as the 
migration from Kamtfchatka to America is far from being- 
difficult. They were once inhabitants of the Britilh ifles. 
Boethius mentions a fpecies of ffieep in St. Kilda, larger 
than the biggeft he-goat, with tail hanging to the 
ground, and horns longer and as thick as thofe of an 
ox. “ This account,” fays Mr. Pennant, “ like the reft 
of his hiftory, is a mixture of truth and fable : I ftiould 
have been filent on this head, had I not better authority ; 
for I find the figure of this animal on a Roman fculpture, 
taken out of Antoninus’s wall near Glafgow. It accom¬ 
panies a recumbent female figure, with a rota, or wheel, 
expreflive of a via, or way, cut poflibly into Caledonia, 
where thefe animals might, in that early age, have been 
found. Whether they were the objefts of worfhip, as 
among the ancient Tartars, I will not pretend to fay; 
for, among the graves of thofe diftant Afiatics, brazen 
images and ftone figures of their argali, or wild fheep, 
are frequently found.” 
The argali is about the fize of the fallow.-deer, but its 
make is more robuft, being lefs elegant than the deer, and 
its neck and legs are (horter. Its head refembles that of 
a ram, with long draggling hairs about the mouth, but 
no beard like the goat. The colour is a greyifli ferrugi¬ 
nous, brown above, and whitifli beneath ; the face is alfo 
whitifti, and behind each /boulder is often obferved a 
dulky fpot or patch; the legs, at leaft in the European 
kind, are commonly white. The head ftrongly refem¬ 
bles that of a ram; but the ears are fmaller in propor¬ 
tion ; the neck more {lender ; the body large ; the limbs 
{lender, but ftrong; the tail very Ihort, being hardly 
more than three inches in length : the horns, in the full- 
grown or old animals, are extremely large, placed on the 
top of the head, and ftand clofe at their bale, rifing firft 
upwards, and then bending down, and twifting outwards, 
as in the common ram. The body is covered with hair 
inftead of wool; in which particular confifts its chief dif¬ 
ference from the general afpedt of a iheep; but in winter 
the face, and particularly the part about the tip of the 
nofe, becomes more white, the back of a more ferrugi¬ 
nous caft, and the hair, which in fummer is clofe, like 
that of a deer, becomes fomewhat rough, wavy, and a 
little curled; confifting of a kind of worn intermixed 
with hair, and concealing at its roots a fine white woolly 
down : the hair about the neck and {boulders, as well as 
under the throat, is confiderably longer than on other 
parts. The female is inferior in fize to the male, and has 
fmaller and lefs-curved horns. 
In Siberia, the argali is chiefly feen on the tops of the 
higheft mountains, expofed to the fun, and free from 
woods. The animals generally go in fmall flocks ; they 
produce their young in the middle of March, and have 
one, and fometimes two, at a birth. The young, when 
firft born, are covered with a foft grey curling fleece, 
which gradually changes into hair towards the end of 
fummer. From fpring to autumn the argalis feed in the 
little valleys among the upper regions of the mountains, 
on the young {hoots of the alpine plants, and are faid 
to grow very fat. As winter approaches, they defeend 
lower, and eat grafsand other vegetables. They are fond 
of frequenting fpots of a faline nature, and will excavate 
the ground in fuch places, in order to get at the fait. 
The horns of the old males grow to a vaft fize, and have 
been found of the length of two Ruffian yards, meafured 
along the fpires ; weighing fifteen pounds each. We 
are allured by Rubruquis, a traveller in the thirteenth 
I s. 
century, that he had feen fome of the horns fo large that 
he could hardly lift a pair with one hand, and that the 
Tartars made great drinking-cups of them. A more mo¬ 
dern traveller has afferted, that young foxes occafionally 
Ihelter themfelves in fuch as are here and there found in 
the deferts. ~ 
The argali is a very timid animal, and, when clofely 
purfued, does not run in a direftly-progreflive courfe, 
but obliquely, from fide to fide, in the manner of other 
iheep, afeending the rocky mountains with great agility, 
and, like the wild goat, going over the narroweft and 
moft dangerous pafles with perfett fafety. The males are 
faid to fight frequently among themfelves, and will fome¬ 
times precipitate each other down the rocks in their con- 
tefts. Their chace is dangerous and difficult, but is an 
important objeft with fome of the Afiatics, fince the ani„ 
mal*furniflies a great number of neceflary articles ; the 
flein being ufed for clothing, and the flefti for food. Pallas 
informs us, that the flefti of the lamb is excellent; that 
of the old animals good; but more particularly when 
roafted. 
In Corfica the argali is known by the name of mufro ; 
where it is fo wild as to be rarely taken alive, but is {hot 
by-the hunters, who lie in wait for it among the moun¬ 
tains. When the young are taken, however, which is 
fometimes the cafe when the parent is {hot, they are ob¬ 
ferved to be very readily tamed. The Corfican argali, or 
moitflon of Buffbn, is of a darker colour than the Afiatic 
kind. 
From the above defeription it will fufliciently appear, 
that the wild flieep is by no means that feemingly-helplefs 
animal which we view in a ftate of confinement and arti¬ 
ficial life; but in the higheft degree a< 5 five and vigorous. 
It is fuppofed to live about fourteen years. It is remark¬ 
able that Linnaeus, in the twelfth edition of the Syftema 
Naturae, places this animal in the genus Capra inftead of 
Ovis ; appearing rather to confider it as the parent of the 
goat than the Iheep. In faft, thefe two genera are fo 
clofely allied, that the line of feparation is not very eafily 
difcoverable. The prefent animal, however, whether we 
confider i^s figure or manners, feems rather to be the 
parent or ftock of the flieep than of the goat race ; and it 
feems, therefore, peculiarly proper to place it at the head 
of the genus. 
| 3 . O. tragelaphus, the bearded iheep. There can be 
little doubt of this being a variety of the preceding, dif¬ 
fering only in the length of the hair on the bread, and in 
having a beard. Its defeription and character is thus 
given by Mr. Pennant, who, in his Synopfis of Quadrupeds, 
referred it to the genus Capra : “ Sheep with the hair on 
the lower part of the cheeks and upper jaws extremely 
long, forming a divided or double beard; with hairs on 
the fides and body Ihort 5 on the top of the neck longer, 
and a little ereft. The whole under part of the neck 
and ihoulders covered with coarfe hairs, not lefs than four¬ 
teen inches long. Beneath the hairs, on every part, was 
a fliort genuine wool, the rudiments of a fleecy clothing : 
the colour of the bread, neck, back, and fides, a pale 
ferruginous. Tail very fliort. Horns clofe at their bafe, 
recurvated ; twenty-five inches long; eleven in circum¬ 
ference in the thickeft place; diverging, and bending 
outwards; their points being nineteen inches diftant from 
each other.” Mr. Pennant obferves, that the learned 
Dr. Kay, or Caius, gives a good defeription of this ani¬ 
mal, from a fpecimen brought into England from Bar¬ 
bary in the year 1561. Dr. Caius fays, that it inhabited 
the mountainous and rocky parts of Mauritania; and 
feemed in confinement to be very gentle, full of play, and 
froliefome, like a goat: the horns were like thofe of a 
ram. This appears to be the tragelaphus of Pliny, not 
only on account of its beard and the great length of 
hair on its {houlders, but likewife of the place where 
that Roman naturalift fays it was found, near the river 
Phafis; for Pallas fays, that an animal with a divided 
beard, probably the fame, has lately been difeovered by 
profeffor 
