[ '6i J 



ever be an enterprize of very great difficulty for 

 the inhabitants of nnoft countries where Ihecp car- 

 rying wool of a coarfe quality much abound, fb to 

 prefer ve a ftrange breed of fine-wooled flieep, as 

 that their defcendants fhall continue to carry as fine 

 wool as that of the parent (lock; tor as the fineff 

 breeds of fheep, wherever they arc to be found in 

 foreign countries, muft be purchafed at a confi* 

 derable price, and tranfported at a great expence, 

 the original flock of fuch fine breeds of fheep that 

 can thus be obtained, will generally be very few in 

 number, and, by confequence, they will be very 

 quickly debafed. 



breed, the climate is, with forae appearance of reafon, thought to fa» 

 vour that breed more than the other, and thus to produce the change. 

 They do not advert that this change is only obferved to take place 

 among the young which have been there produced, and that the ori- 

 ginal ftock, as long as they continue in life, always retain their origi- 

 nal peculiarities as diftln<5t as at the beginning. This proves that it is 

 from a mixture of blood, and not from the influence of climate, that 

 the gradual aflimilation is produced. 



Thofe who have not much adverted to this fubje<fl will think they 

 fee a fort of contraditSlion between what I here fay of the permanency 

 of the breed, and what I faid of the influence of the climate in altering 

 the finenefs of the filament of wool; but a little attention will remove 

 this difficulty. The climate produces no durable change of the nature 

 of the animal, but merely a tentporarj variation wliich immediately 

 <eafes when the caufe that produced it is removed. The change by 

 intermixture of blood is on the contrary a permanent change, that iy 

 equally obfervablc ii» every variation of climate. 



Vol. VI, M From 



