(On The Ovis Poli, See Captain Deasy, In Tibet, P. 361.) - H. C.]

Colonel Gordon, the head of the exploring party detached by Sir Douglas Forsyth, brought away a head of Ovis Poli,

Which quite bears out the account by its eponymus of horns "good 6 palms in length," say 60 inches. This head, as I learn from a letter of Colonel Gordon's to a friend, has one horn perfect which measures 65-1/2 inches on the curves; the other, broken at the tip measures 64 inches; the straight line between the tips is 55 inches.

[Captain Younghusband [1886] "before leaving the Altai Mountains, picked up several heads of the Ovis Poli, called Argali by the Mongols. They were somewhat different from those which I afterwards saw at Yarkand, which had been brought in from the Pamir. Those I found in the Gobi were considerably thicker at the base, there was a less degree of curve, and a shorter length of horn." A full description of the Ovis Poli, with a large plate drawing of the horns, may be seen in Colonel Gordon's Roof of the World. (See p. 81.) (Proc. R. G. S. X. 1888, p. 495.) Some years later, Captain Younghusband speaks repeatedly of the great sport of shooting Ovis Poli. (Proc. R. G. S. XIV. 1892, pp. 205, 234.) - H. C.]

As to the pasture, Timkowski heard that "the pasturage of Pamir is so luxuriant and nutritious, that if horses are left on it for more than forty days they die of repletion." (I. 421.) And Wood:

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 715 of 1256
Words from 194087 to 194347 of 342071