always sleep. Tlieir average value is from two to
three pounds; but the price varies with the season. In
autumn, when her calf is killed for food, the mother
will yield no milk, unless the herdsman gives her
the calf's foot to lick, or lays a stuffed skin before her, to
fondle, which she does with eagerness, expressing her
satisfaction by short grunts, exactly like those of
a a sound which replaces the low uttered by
ordinary cattle. The yak, though indifferent to ice
and snow and to changes of temperature, cannot endure
hunger so long as the sheep, nor pick its way so well
upon stony ground. Neither can it bear damp heat,
for which reason it will not live in summer below 7000
feet, where liver disease carries it off after a very
few years.* Lastly, the yak is ridden, especially
by the Lamas, who find its shaggy coat warm, and its
pace easy; under these circumstances it is always led.
The wild yak or bison (D’hong) of central Asia, the
superb progenitor of this animal, is the largest native
animal of Tibet, in various parts of which country it is
found; and the Tibetans say, in reference to its size,
* Nevertheless, the yak seems to have survived the voyage to England.
I find in Turner’s “ Tibet” (p. 189), that a bull sent by that traveller to
Mr. Hastings, reached England alive, and after suffering from languor, so
far recovered its health and vigour as to become the father of many calves.
Turner does not state by what mother these calves were bom, an important
omission, as he adds that all these died but one cow, which bore a calf by
an Indian bull. A painting of the yak (copied into Turner’s book) by
Stubbs, the animal painter, may be seen in the Museum of the Royal
College of Surgeons, London. The artist is probably a little indebted to
description for the appearance of its hair in a native state, for it is represented
much too even in length, and reaching to too uniform a depth from
the flanks.
that the liver is a load for a tame yak. The Sikkim
Dewan gave Dr. Campbell and myself an animated
account of the chase of this animal, which is hunted
by large dogs, and shot with a blunderbuss: it is
untameable and fierce, falling upon you with horns and
chest, and if he rasps you with his tongue, it is so
rough as to scrape the flesh from the bones. The
horns are used as drinking-cups in marriage feasts, and
on other grand occasions. My readers are probably
familiar with Messrs. Hue and Gabet’s account of
a herd of these animals being frozen fast in the headwaters
of the Yangtsekiang river.
The inhabitants of these frontier districts belong to
two very different tribes, but all are alike called
Bhoteas (from Bhote, the proper name of Tibet), and
have for many centuries been located in what is—in
climate and natural features—a neutral ground between
dry Tibet Proper, and the wet Himalayan gorges.
They inhabit a climate too cold for either the Lepcha
or Nepalese, migrating between 6000 and 15,000 feet
with the seasons, accompanied by their herds. In
appearance, religion, manners, customs, and language,
they are Tibetans and Lama Booddhists, but they pay
tax to the Nepal and Sikkim Bajahs, to whom they
render immense service by keeping up and facilitating
the trade in salt, wool, musk, &c., which could hardly
be conducted without their co-operation. They levy a
small tax on all imports, and trade a little on their own
account, but are generally poor and very indolent. In
their alpine summer quarters they grow scanty crops
of wheat, barley, turnips, and radishes; and at their