$0 ofthe Tauric, and other varieties of fheep. Sept. 1] 
A third variety of fheep mentioned by the same old 
writers, and so much laughed at,-was one witha 
yellow fleece, and teeth of the colour of gold. But, 
Mr Editor, as we find two of the three varieties do 
exist in nature, it is but fair, before we condemn our 
venerable authors as fabulous, to see if it is pofsible 
to account for such a phenomenon from natural 
causes.* 
* In all the remote parts of Scotland and the isles, where fheep — 
have been in a great measure neglected, and allowed to breed pro. 
miscuously, without any selection, there is to be found a prodigious 
diversity of colours; and among others dun fheep,—or those of a brown- 
ish colour tending to an obscure yellow, are not unfrequent. These 
I have often seen; and these, I have no doubt, are the yellow fheep of 
Boethius. But a bright yellow fheep, resembling the clear yellow 
colour obtained on pure white wool by means of weld, I never saw or 
heard of ; and believe none such exist more than of the blue. 
When any variety ot these fheep becomes a favourite with a par- 
ticular person, those of that colour are selected to breed from ; and in 
this way it frequently happens that those oi one colour begin to pre~ 
dominate in one place more than another. It is for this reason, and 
to save the trouble of dying, that the poor people in the Highlands 
propagate black, and ruiset, and brown, and other coloured fheep, 
more than in any country where the wool is regularly brought to mar- 
ket. Inthe isle of Man a breed of dun fheep ‘s very common till this 
hour ; and I have been told fheep of the same dun colour, are common 
_ in the Crimea. ; 
Of all the variety of colours’ I have seen among these flocks, that of 
the silver grey, consisting of a mixture of pure white and black fila~ 
mentsis the most beautiful. Where the black is clear and fhining, and 
the white pure, it has a very fine lustre and brilliancy. Mottled fheep, 
consisting of spots o! different colours are to be found in Shetland. At 
Aisiabie park in Yorkshire there is a breed oi the mottied fheep 
which have been preserved there for a long while past asa curiosity. 
Tiey are descended from a ewe and ram thus marked, that came 
originally trom Andalusia in Sepa Their wool is very coarse 
BsiG, 
