A Note, With Which I Have Been Favoured By Dr. Campbell (Long The
Respected Superintendent Of British Sikkim) Says:
"Captain Smith, of the
Bengal Army, who had travelled in Western Tibet, told me that he had shot
many wild Yaks in the neighbourhood of the Mansarawar Lake, and that he
measured a bull which was 18 hands high, i.e. 6 feet.
All that he saw were
black all over. He also spoke to the fierceness of the animal. He was
once charged by a bull that he had wounded, and narrowly escaped being
killed. Perhaps my statement (above referred to) in regard to the relative
size of the Wild and Tame Yak, may require modification if applied to all
the countries in which the Yak is found. At all events, the finest
specimen of the tame Yak I ever saw, was not in Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet, or
Bootan, but in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris; and that one, a male,
was brought from Shanghai. The best drawing of a Yak I know is that in
Turner's Tibet."
[Lieutenant Samuel Turner gave a very good description of the Yak of
Tartary, which he calls Soora-Goy or the Bushy-tailed Bull of Tibet.
(Asiat. Researches, No. XXIII, pp. 351-353, with a plate.) He says with
regard to the colour: "There is a great variety of colours amongst them,
but black or white are the most prevalent. It is not uncommon to see the
long hair upon the ridge of the back, the tail, tuft upon the chest, and
the legs below the knee white, when all the rest of the animal is jet
black." A good drawing of "an enormous" Yak is to be found on p. 183 of
Captain Wellby's Unknown Tibet. (See also Captain Deasy's work on
Tibet, p. 363.) Prince Henri d'Orleans brought home a fine specimen,
which he shot during his journey with Bonvalot; it is now exhibited in the
galleries of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. Some Yaks were brought to
Paris on the 1st April, 1854, and the celebrated artist, Mme. Rosa
Bonheur, made sketches after them. (See Jour. Soc. Acclimatation, June,
1900, 39-40.) - H. C.]
Captain Prjevalsky, in his recent journey (1872-1873), shot twenty wild
Yaks south of the Koko Nor. He specifies one as 11 feet in length
exclusive of the tail, which was 3 feet more; the height 6 feet. He speaks
of the Yak as less formidable than it looks, from apathy and stupidity,
but very hard to kill; one having taken eighteen bullets before it
succumbed.
[Mr. Rockhill (Rubruck, 151, note) writes: "The average load carried by
a Yak is about 250 lbs. The wild Yak bull is an enormous animal, and the
people of Turkestan and North Tibet credit him with extraordinary
strength. Mirza Haidar, in the Tarikhi Rashidi, says of the wild Yak or
kutas: 'This is a very wild and ferocious beast. In whatever manner it
attacks one it proves fatal. Whether it strikes with its horns, or kicks,
or overthrows its victim.
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