NOTES ON THE YAK, OR GRUNTING OX, AND OTHER RUMINATING ANIMALS FROM CENTRAL ASIA.

By Thomas J. Moore, Esq., with additional Notes by Captain Smyth.*

(READ 18TH DECEMBER, 1856.)

In the month of March last, a communication on behalf of Captain Edmund Smyth, of the 13th Bengal Native Infantry, was made to the Library and Museum Committee in this town, stating that Captain Smyth, then absent on the Turkish Contingent, was desirous of presenting to the British Museum, and the Museums of Edinburgh and Liverpool, skins of the Yak and other Ruminating Animals recently shot by him in the Himalayas. The offer was most willingly accepted. The specimens, on arrival, proved to be a remarkably fine wild Bull-Yak, a male and female Argali Sheep, the former about four years old; an adult and a yearling Burrhell Sheep, and a Jemlah Goat. The Yak and the adult Burrhell, being all that room could be made for, were immediately stuffed and exhibited.

As all four species are extremely rare in collections, and are very remarkable animals, I have thought that a few notes respecting them might be of sufficient interest to bring before the notice of the meeting.

I shall refer to them in the order in which they occur in the invaluable manual of this Order of Mammalia, forming part of the series of Catalogues of the Zoological collection in the British Museum, the volume on Ungulata Furcipeda, by Dr. Gray, to which I have been much indebted in compiling the following pages, while it is to Dr. Gray's suggestion, I believe, that we are originally indebted for this most valuable donation.

THE YAK OR GRUNTING OX OF TARTARY AND THIBET.
Poëphagus grunniens, (Linnæus).

The Oxen are divided by Dr. Gray, in the work already referred to, into two groups, each having distinctive characters and habits. The first conSince the following paper was read before the Society, Capt. Smyth has returned to England, and on visiting the Museum, he very kindly promised to favour me with his notes on these animals. These notes, extracted from his journal written on the spot, will be read with extreme interest, and I beg to express my best acknowledgements to Capt. Smyth for permission to add them to my paper, in which they supersede much that I had written on the subject.

tains the True Oxen, or those living on the plains of warm and temperate regions; and the second, the Oxen of the mountains or snowy regions. This latter contains the Yak, the Takin (Budorcas taxicola, Hodgson, a very remarkable Ruminant from the eastern Himalayas,) and the Musk Ox of the Arctic regions.

The Yak was placed by Linnæus, with all other Oxen known to him, in his single genus Bos, as B. grunniens. From this it was removed by Col. Hamilton Smith, in 1827, and placed in his genus Bison, (as Bison Poëphagus,) together with the Gayal of India, the Aurochs of Europe, and the Bison of America. From these it was further separated by Dr. Gray, in the Catalogue of the Mammalia in the British Museum, published in 1843, and formed into a distinct genus as Poëphagus grunniens.

The Yak is one of the very few animals existing both in a wild and domesticated state; and as the former is very little known, a brief description of our specimen may be desirable.

Length of skull (stuffed) from the nose to the occipital ridge 1 10
Width between the orbits

1

0

The general colour of our animal, which is in its summer coat, is a deep and rich hair brown, palest on the withers, where it is slightly freckled with grey, and becoming a darker brown in every direction as it recedes from this. The hair of the forehead is rather long, and dark brown, the hairs tipped with grey, producing a grizzled appearance, which increases

towards the nostrils, while the hair becomes short and close; above the centre of the nostrils is a patch of white, which colour also pervades the lips, and slightly the chin. The muffle, or naked space between the nostrils, is contracted to less than an inch in breadth on the lip. On the ears, cheeks, lower jaws, and upper portion of the throat, the hair is rather long and black; between the horns, and behind the occipital ridge, it is divergent and grizzled. The legs are very dark brown; the forelegs, from the shoulders nearly to the knees, are covered with long black silky waved hair, as is very nearly the whole length of each flank, and a line rising obliquely across the buttocks, where the colour of the long hair changes to a brown hue. This long pendulous hair, which constitutes one of the chief characteristics of the species, attains its greatest length on the groin and tail. The tail at its origin is clothed with short adpressed hair, which rapidly increases in length, and forms a huge black whisk, completely hiding the remainder of the caudal extremity. Along the ridge of the neck is a dark brown streak, reaching nearly to the withers, which are free from any medial line; but the lumbar region is traversed by a pale central streak, which becomes dark brown as it approaches the tail. From the hip a blackish line passes diagonally across the loin; this is composed of slightly longer hair than that on the upper part of the body, the whole of which is short and close. In winter the long hair of the flanks probably extends much higher.

The horns are black, very strong, compact, and roundish, diverging outwards at the base, and slightly forwards, then bending backwards with a bold curve, the tips converging towards each other. The hoofs are solid, compact, and black.

Dr. A. L. Adams, of the Army Medical Staff, has favoured me with the dimensions of a Yak shot by Mr. Peyton, of the 87th regiment, near Yarkund, Chinese Tartary, which was considered so unusually fine an animal as to lead to these dimensions being taken; and they only exceed those of our specimen by 24 inches in the length of horn, 1 inch in circumference, and 6 inches in span, the length of face and width between the orbits, being the same in both. Dr. Adams states that the grey hairs about the nostrils are found only in wild, not in domestic examples.

Being found over a wide extent of territory, the Yak is known by a

variety of names. In Thibet the bull is called Yak, and the cow Dhé; in the same country Dhong is the appellation given to the bull in its wild state; and Yak-mo is another name for the cow, but whether wild or tame is not stated. In Hindostan the species is designated Soora-Goy. Chauri-Gau, and Kash-gow are also applied, the former in Nepaul.

The half breed, with what Mr. Vigne ("Travels in Cachmere") calls the common cow, is stated by him to be called Bzoh.

The cross common in the north-west Himalayas between the Yak and the Hill Cow (much resembling the English Cow) is called Zobo.

Pennant speaks of two domestic varieties, called by the Mongols respectively Ghainoûk and Sarlyk; the former he calls the original Thibet race, the latter a degenerate kind. He also speaks of the wild race under the name of Bucha.

The exact extent of its range in a wild state is not clearly ascertained. All authors agree in its being found in a thoroughly wild and aboriginal state in Thibet, where it is also domesticated, but owing to the general practice of turning herds of the tame breeds at large to graze on the mountain ranges at will, for several months in the year, there is reason to believe that they have often been mistaken by travellers for the unreclaimed animal. Mr. Hodgson, the late British Resident at Nepal, says that the Yak inhabits all the loftiest plateaux of High Asia, between the Altai and the Himalaya, the Belut Jag and the Peling mountains, and that it is found tame as well as wild, but without defining its limits in the latter state. The northern slopes of the Himalayas, that descend upon the plains of Yarkund, the confines of Chinese Tartary, Pamir, and the upper part of Budukhshun, are inhabited by the wild race, to which must be added the locality of our own specimen, namely, the high mountains to the north of the Milum and Neetee passes from Almorah to Hoondes. The Huzarra ranges and Kunawar are also spoken of, but these require confirmation. Little Thibet is too hot for them in winter, Mr. Vigne states, and that in fact the real Yak is not common there, but that those of the half breed are plentiful.

Capt. Broome, quoted by Mr. Blyth, has heard of Yaks being seen wild about Rodok, where they are exceedingly savage and dangerous to travellers in the passes. Mr. Blyth also quotes Timkowski's assertion, that both

wild and tame Yaks are found on the western frontiers of China, and in all

Tangout.

The specimen in the East India Museum, agreeing with ours in colour, was obtained in Ladakh by chace, and exhibits the natural or wild state.

Capt. Turner gives a very comprehensive history of the Yak in the "Account of his Embassy to Thibet," which was published in 1780. He writes that these cattle are pastured in the coldest part of Thibet, upon the short herbage peculiar to the tops of mountains and bleak plains. The chain of mountains situated between the latitudes 27° and 28°, which divides Thibet from Bootan, and whose summits are most commonly clothed with snow, is their favourite haunt. In this vicinity the southern glades afford them food and shelter during the severity of winter; in milder seasons the northern aspect is more congenial to their nature, and admits a wider range.

Lieut. Wood, quoted by Mr. Blyth, says-" Other cattle require the provident care of man to subsist them through the winter, but the Yak is left entirely to itself. It frequents the mountain slopes, and their level summits, and wherever the mercury does not rise above zero is a climate for the Yak." Lieut. Wood further observes, that like the Elephant the Yak possesses a wonderful knowledge of what will bear his weight. If travellers are at fault, one of these animals is driven before them, and it is said that he avoids the hidden depths and chasms with admirable sagacity. His footing is sure. Should a fall of snow close a mountain pass to man and horse, a score of Yaks driven a-head answer the purpose of pioneers, and make, as his informant expressed it, a 'king's highway.' In this case, however, the snow must have recently fallen, for when its surface is frozen over, and its depths considerable, no animal can force its way through it.

Dr. Hooker, in his "Himalayan Journals," states that the Yak loves. steep places, delighting to scramble among rocks, and to sun its black hide perched on the glacial boulders which strew the Wallanchoon flat, and on these boulders he always sleeps. The great altitude he inhabits appears to exempt him from the attacks of insects, as no large Diptera, bots, or gad-flies are there met with. The specimen of the

domestic Yak, however, which reached Knowsley in life, discharged from its nostril, during its voyage, the larva of an insect about the size of a human finger; but this does not in any way disparage Dr. Hooker's state