236 Memoir on the IVbol and Sheep 



debted for the superiority of its wool, and the beauty of irs 

 flocks. Care, and a few processes which we do not follow, 

 and which I shall explain in this memoir, contribute to 

 carry both to the utmost deccrce of perfection. France, 

 happy by its situation, by the mdustrv and the means of its 

 inhabitants, and by the influence of its climate, might ob- 

 tain nil these advantages when it chooses : such a country 

 must be extremely proper for breeding and improving all the 

 fcpecies of sheep, and those brought from every part of the 

 earth ought to thrive in it. 



The Cachemirian sheep is one of the most beautiful of 

 its species : its mean length is from thirty-six to forty 

 inches ; its height from twenty to twenty-two, and its 

 weight from fifty-five to sixty pounds. The ipost distin- 

 guishing characters cf this species area small head and lively 

 eyes; their front is not rough, and they have a long anrj 

 wrinkled dewlap. The lambs are brought forth with crispy 

 wool on the flaiiks, but ihey have only a few flocks on the 

 back and along ihe spine. P2ach sheep produces, one with 

 another, about three sers of thirty ounces each of clean 

 wool ; for it is never sold till it has once been washed on the 

 animal before it is shorn, and then by prociisses which I 

 shall here descriljc. 



The body of tliese animals being well proportioned in all 

 its parts, renders their gait light, easv, and secure. The care 

 taken in breeding them, and the methods pursued, give them 

 great vigour, a lively and even bold look, sound health, 

 and a beautiful white covering of verv long fine silky and 

 imdulating v.-ooi. They resemble those beautiful flocks 

 which Virgil and his successful imitat<)r Delille describe in 

 their immortal poems; those flocks so celebrated in anti- 

 quity, the shepherds of which were kings. One oF the 

 valuable and essentia! qualities of the Cachemirian sheep is, 

 that they stand heat as well as cold. Cachemire, being situ- 

 ated between the thirty-second and thirtv-third degree of 

 north latitude, and inclosed by a dovible chain of lofty 

 mountains, experiences the heat of the torrid zone, and the 

 cold of France: but the air of this country is constantly 

 dry ; and the successive transition, sometimes very sudden, 

 from extreme heat to cold, is by no means preiudicial to the 

 sheep. This etfect, in my opinion, arises from the hard- 

 ness of the cranium of these animals, their conformation, 

 and the practice of not shutting them up. The same eftl-ct 

 I have remarked in general in India, not only in the natives, 

 who always go bare-headed, and who make continual use of 

 ablution with cold water, but also in all the animals, 'ihe 



sheen 



