ORIGIN OF KARAKUL SHEEP 



Black Danadar the Original Fur-bearing Stock of Central Asia — This Crossed with 



White, Fine-wool Afghan Sheep Produced the Gray Danadar Which in Turn 



Crossed with Fatrump Sheep Produced the Small Arabi or Karakul 



Breed — Industry in Turkestan Being Ruined by Natives. 



Dr. C. C. Young 

 Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. 



SOME 26 years ago Dr. Sinitzin, 

 who was at the time employed 

 by the Russian government in 

 Tauria as senior animal husband- 

 man, made a trip to Bokhara in Russian 

 Turkestan and, while there, made an 

 effort to describe the various breeds of 

 sheep that produce valuable lamb skins. 

 Up to that time no attempt had been 

 made by anyone to classify these breeds, 

 and practically nothing had been writ- 

 ten on the subject save for the brief 

 mention made by Pallas in his book, 

 in which he so ably described some of 

 the other Asiatic breeds of sheep. It is 

 Sinitzin who first learned that the word 

 Kara KmI ("black lake"), was a term 

 not employed by the natives, but that 

 the Russians who came prior to him to 

 Bokhara in quest of fur-bearing sheep, 

 and who were in the habit of making 

 their purchases in the Kara Kul district 

 near the village of the same name, 

 situated near the railway station, on a 

 small river, both of which also bear the 

 name, had transferred this geographical 

 name to the sheep. 



It was also Dr. Sinitzin who first gave 

 the world the terms used by the natives 

 in designating certain breeds of fur- 

 bearing sheep: Arabi, Duzbai, Shiraz, 

 and so on. Although he made several 

 grave errors in his classification, he 

 nevertheless deserves credit for having 

 done a large amount of valuable pioneer 

 work. 



Dr. Sinitzin describes (1) the small 

 Arabi, (2), the large Arabi, (3), the 

 Duzbai, (4), the Shiraz and (5), the 

 Zigai, among the Bokharan breeds of 

 sheep. He names the small Arabi as 

 the origin of all the fur-bearing sheep of 



Central Asia, including the Malitch of 

 Crimea, the Tshushka of Bessarabia and 

 the Reshetilev and Sokoliev of Poltova 

 province. According to this theory, the 

 small Arabi is descended from the 

 Mamai, the oldest breed of domesti- 

 cated sheep, petrified specimens of 

 which, dating back some 8000 years, 

 were found by Duerst in excavating the 

 ruins of Anau (Transcaspia) . Sinitzin 

 resorts to the Bible for further history 

 and claims that Jacob won Rachel by 

 knowing how to breed the pigmented 

 sheep that are the pride of the Sarts 

 even today. 



But as all Karakul breeds are broad- 

 tails {Ovis platyura) , and as the petrified 

 sheep above mentioned proved to be a 

 fatrump (Ovis steatopyga), Dr. Sinitzin's 

 theory can not be taken very seriously. 

 My own experience has shown me that 

 when a longtail sheep is crossed with a 

 fatrump, the result is a broadtail, and 

 while the first cross looks more like a 

 typical Russian fattail (called by the 

 Russians Jirnochvostaja) , the second and 

 third crosses can not be classified other- 

 wise than as broadtails. I therefore 

 concluded that the Karakul breeds 

 resulted from crosses of longtail sheep 

 on fat rumps. I have often found Kara- 

 kul sheep, closely answering Sinitzin's 

 description of the Small Arabi, which 

 had rather long tails with so little fat 

 accumulation at the base that the tail 

 resembled that of a longtail sheep, 

 rather than that of a broadtail. 



THE TEST OF PIGMENT. 



In all these cases that came under my 

 observation, I found that the black pig- 

 ment in the wool of the mature sheep 



445 



