28 THE BOOK OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM 



Of the antiquity of our Domestic Sheep it is impossible to write 

 with any degree of certainty, for these useful animals, which have 

 been, and still are, so largely used for food and clothing, have from 

 time immemorial been inseparably connected with mankind. The 

 Domestic Sheep is undoubtedly one of man's most cherished pos- 

 sessions, and to-day when one so continually hears the cry of "back 

 to the land," and new countries are being opened up by settlers 

 from the homeland, Sheep are to be reckoned in countless numbers, 

 for their wool is greatly sought after for the purpose of making into 

 clothing, and so ministering to the wants and comforts of the human 

 race. We in England do not possess any adequate idea of the 

 enormous flocks of Sheep which are found in the great continent of 

 Australia, in South America, Canada and elsewhere, and we regard 

 their being kept in such numbers as one of the surest signs that 

 mankind — at least those races which live in temperate climates where 

 clothing is a necessity — owes a great deal to the usefulness of the 

 Sheep, to say nothing of its flesh being still largely used in spite 

 of the active propaganda of vegetarians and others. 



We are as a nation great meat-eaters, and the colonist has not 

 been slow to note this, owing to his knowledge of the old country. 

 Having become the possessor of a tract of land which he may have 

 almost for the asking, in view of the amount of tillage it requires 

 before becoming remunerative, he has in course of time seen the 

 result of his labours rewarded by the soil giving forth abundant 

 fruit and his herd of cattle gradually assuming respectable propor- 

 tions. In some instances flock owners have become the possessors 

 of such immense herds of Sheep and other animals that on large 

 areas of sparsely populated land it is often impossible to accurately 

 determine, except on rare occasions, the number constituting the 

 flock. This gives an idea of the vastness of those countries which 

 have been opened up of recent years, and the demand which exists 

 to supply the home and other markets with produce that we in 

 England are unable to supply for ourselves. Some relatives of the 

 writer emigrated to Australia about forty years ago, and by dint of 

 hard work — the very necessary essential which every successful 

 colonizer must undergo — they have succeeded in procuring rich 

 crops from land which, at first sight, hardly looked worth the tilling, 

 and reared huge flocks of Sheep whose exact numbers it is often 

 difficult to determine. 



These animals are permitted to roam over a vast extent of 



