"A third kind [of animals] are those called Uri. They are but little less than Elephants in size, and are of the species, colour, and form of a bull. Their strength is very great, and also their speed. They spare neither man nor beast that they see. They cannot be brought to endure the sight of men, nor be tamed, even when taken young. The people who take them in pit-falls, assiduously destroy them; and young men harden themselves in this labour, and exercise themselves in this kind of chase; and those who have killed a great number--the horns being publicly exhibited in evidence of the fact--obtain great honour. The horns, in amplitude, shape, and species, differ much from the horns of our oxen. They are much sought after; and after having been edged with silver at their mouths, they are used for drinking vessels at great feasts." (_De Bello Gallico_, lib. vi.) THE YAK, OR SOORA-GOY. _Bos Grunniens._ [Illustration] The following interesting and circumstantial account of this curious species of Ox, is from the pen of Lieut. Samuel Turner. (_Asiatic Researches_, vol. iv.) "The Yak of Tartary, called Soora-Goy in Hindostan, and which I term the Bushy-tailed Bull of Tibet, is about the height of an English Bull, which he resembles in the figure of the body, head, and legs. I could distinguish between them no essential difference, except only that the Yak is covered all over with a thick coat of long hair. The head is rather short, crowned with two smooth round horns, that, tapering from the setting on, terminate in sharp points, arch inwardly, and near the extremities are a little turned back. The ears are small; the forehead appears prominent, being adorned with much curling hair; the eyes are full and large; the nose smooth and convex; the nostrils small. The neck is short, describing a curvature nearly equal both above and below; the withers high and arched; the rump low. Over the shoulders rises a bunch, which at first sight would seem to be the same kind of exuberance peculiar to the cattle of Hindostan; but in reality it consists in the superior length of the hair only, which, as well as that along the ridge of the back to the setting on of the tail, grows long and erect, but not harsh. The tail is composed of a prodigious quantity of long flowing glossy hair, descending to the hock; and is so extremely well furnished, that not a joint of it is perceptible; but it has much the appearance of a large bunch of hair artificially set on. The shoulders, rump, and upper part of the body are clothed with a sort of thick soft wool, but the inferior parts with straight pendent hair that descends below the knee; and I have seen it so long in some cattle, which were in high health and condition, as to trail along the ground. From the chest, between the fore-legs, issues a large pointed tuft of hair, growing somewhat larger than the rest. The legs are very short. In every other respect, hoofs, &c., he resembles the ordinary Bull.