Photo by J. W. McLellan] [Highbury.
BURHAL WILD SHEEP.
Sometimes called the Blue Sheep. They have a wide range both on the Himalaya and north of those mountains.
The bighorn sheep are very partial to salt. Mr. Turner Turner, who hunted them in East Kooteney, says: "Wild sheep make periodical excursions to the mountain-tops to gorge themselves with salty clay. They may remain from an hour to two days, and when killed their stomachs will be found full of nothing but the clay formed from denuded limestone, which they lick and gnaw until sometimes deep tunnels are formed in the cliffs, large enough to hide six or seven sheep. The hunter, standing over one of these warrens, may bolt them within two yards of him. In the dead of winter sheep often come to the woods to feed on fir-trees. At such times they may be seen mixed with black-and-white-tailed deer, low on a river-bank. I have known them come within forty yards of an inhabited hut."
While on the subject of the fondness of sheep and deer for salt, we may mention an anecdote told by Mr. H. C. Nelson in Country Life. He was sleeping with two other friends in a hut in the mountains where some miners had lived for a time. These men, when they washed up their pots and pans, threw the slops away at a certain place close by the hut. As all water used for cooking meat has salt put into it, a little salt remained on the surface. This the wild deer had found out, and were in the habit of coming to lick it at night. Mr. Nelson had a shot at one some twenty yards from the hut.
The bighorn sheep stands from 3 feet 2 inches to 3 feet 6 inches at the shoulder. The horns are of the general type of the argalis, but smoother. Another bighorn is found in Kamchatka. There is also a beautiful white race of bighorn inhabiting Alaska. The typical Rocky Mountain race is browner than the Asiatic argalis, and in winter is dark even beneath the front parts of the body. It is not found on the high peaks of the great ranges, but on difficult though lower ground on the minor hills.
The Oorial.
The vast range of the Himalaya affords feeding-ground to other species of wild sheep and wild goat, so different in the shape of the horns that the variations of the ovine race under domestication need not be matter for wonder when so much variety is seen in nature.
The Oorial, or Sha, is found in North-west India, on the Trans-Indus Mountains, and in Ladak, Northern Tibet, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Turkestan, and Southern Persia. The horns make a half-curve backwards, and are flattened. The angle with the horizontal line across the ears is about half a right angle. The coat is of a reddish-brown colour, with white on the belly, legs, and throat. This species has a very wide geographical distribution, and is the only wild sheep found in India proper.