276 [Senate. 



ish color, with a dark patch about the eyes, resembling the raccoon; 

 but these freaks of nature are seldom lasting; the fleece will change 

 nearly to its natural color after the first clip. 



In sheep, the many kinds that now prevail may be attributed partly 

 to climate^ which acts on the thickness, staple and quality of the 

 fleece, form and stature of the carcass. The coarsest of furs and wool 

 of which 1 am acquainted, are the production of hot climates, and 

 those of the thick finer qualities, are mostly from the colder regions. 



A certain degree of heat, though less than that of the tropics, ap- 

 pears favorable to increase of stature. The effects of difi"erent kinds 

 of food upon the animal are also as extensive and as wonderful as 

 those of diff"erent climates. The fineness and coarseness of the wool, 

 the firmness and flavor of the flesh, and extent of the stature, are all 

 influenced by the nature of the diet. The South Downs, for instance, 

 are said to have originated from a small hardy race of animals, which 

 by careful attention and high keep for a long succession of years, have 

 perfected a larger race of beautiful animals. 



The manner of life, also has had an influence in producing the dif- 

 ferent kinds of sheep, as will be seen by comparing the breeds in 

 Spain, the migratory with the stationary; the Siberian argali, with the 

 sheep which are said to have sprung from it. 



But it is probable that a very great part of the more striking dis- 

 tinctions that prevail, and almost all of the subordinate variations 

 occasionally to be met with, are the result of a morbid and heredita- 

 ry affection. At first by accident, or by some cause that we cannot 

 discover, there has been produced an improvement or defect in a 

 particular organ; it is astonishing to behold how readily it is often 

 copied by the generative principle, and how tenaciously it adheres to 

 the future offspring. Hence, hornless sheep and hornless cattle pro- 

 duce an equally hornless offspring. The broad tailed Asiatic sheep 

 yields a progeny with a tail equally monstrous, and often of not less 

 than half a hundred pounds weight. . ' 



Some years since I had a cosset lamb which became diseased with 

 the converging strabismus or cross eyes; it was first brought on by a 

 very severe chase it received from a dog, causing great muscular ex- 

 ertion and fright. All of her progeny, down to tlie third generation, 

 have been marked with cross eyes, not able to discover objects but a 

 few feet around them. Accident seems first to have produced this 

 defect; but the strabismus has been wholly retained in the progeny. 



There is a very peculiar variety of sheep described by Col. Hum- 

 phreys, and which the American naturalists have called from its bowed 

 or elbow legs, Ovis ancon, but the common people " the otter breed," 

 from its resemblance to the general form of the otter, and 'a rumor 

 that it was first produced by an unnatural inteix^ourse beween indivi- 

 duals of the two distinct kinds. So tenaciously has this deformity 

 been preserved, that if a common sheep and Ancon sheep of either 

 sex unite, the young will be either a perfect Ancon, or have no trace 

 of it; and if two are lambed at a time, and one be of one variety and the 

 other of the other, each is found to be perfect in its way, without any 

 amalgamation^ therefore it might take several generations before the 



