98 SHEEP : Chap. III. 



naturalist 74 believes that our sheep descend from ten aborigi- 

 nally distinct species, of which only one is still living in a wild 

 state ! Another ingenious observer, 75 though not a naturalist, 

 with a bold defiance of everything known on geographical dis- 

 tribution, infers that the sheep of Great Britain alone are the 

 descendants of eleven endemic British forms ! Under such 

 a hopeless state of doubt it would be useless for my purpose 

 to give a detailed account of the several breeds ; but a few 

 remarks may be added. 



Sheep have been domesticated from a very ancient period. 

 Riitimeyer 76 found in the Swiss lake-dwellings the remains of 

 a small breed, with thin tall legs, and horns like those of a 

 goat, thus differing somewhat from any kind now known. 

 Almost every country has its own peculiar breed ; and many 

 countries have several breeds differing greatly from each other. 

 One of the most strongly marked races is an Eastern one with 

 a lcng tail, including, according to Pallas, twenty vertebrae, 

 and so loaded with fat that it is sometimes placed on a truck, 

 which is dragged about by the living animal. These sheep, 

 though ranked by Fitzinger as a distinct aboriginal form, 

 bear in their drooping ears the stamp of long domestication. 

 This is likewise the case with those sheep which have two 

 great masses of fat on the rump, with the tail in a rudimen- 

 tary condition. The Angola variety of the long-tailed race 

 has curious masses of fat on the back of the head and bene.ath 

 the jaws. 77 Mr. Hodgson in an admirable paper 78 on the 

 sheep of the Himalaya infers from the distribution of the 

 several races, " that this caudal augmentation in most of its 

 phases is an instance of degeneracy in these pre-eminently 

 Alpine animals." The horns present an endless diversity in 

 character; being not rarely absent, especially in the female 

 sex, or, on the other hand, amounting to four or even eight 

 in number. The horns, when numerous, arise from a crest 

 on the frontal bone, which is elevated in a peculiar manner. 



74 Dr. L. Fitzinger, ' Ueber die vol. ii. p. 264. 



Racen des Zahmen Schafes,' 1860, s. 76 ' Piahlbauten,' s. 127, 193. 



86. " Youatt on Sheep, p. 120. 



75 J. Anderson, ' Recreations in 78 ' Journal of the Asiatic Soc. of 

 Agriculture and Nativral History,' Bengal,' vol. xvi. pp. 1007, 1016. 



