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.
