S';93' account of the argalL Sj 



tis slow in believing the afsertions hinted at in my 

 introduction, which tend to prove the flieep a local 

 animal ; or at least confined to certain latitudes, to 

 pofscfs it in all its value *. 



The argali loves solitude, or pofsiblj perfect li- 

 berty, and therefore flees the haunts of all-subdu- 

 ing man ; hence it gradually abandons a country in 

 proportion as it becomes peopled, if no unsur- 

 mountable obstacle obstructs its fliglit ; insomuch 

 that Dr Pallas thinks that nothing but the surroun- 

 ding sea can account for the wild ftieep being found 

 in an inhabited island ; as is sometimes the case. 



The ewe of the argali brings forth before the 

 melting of the snow. Her lamb resembles much, 

 a young kid ; except that they have a large 

 flat protuberance in place of horns, and that 

 they are covered with a woolly hair frizzled and 

 of a dark grey. There is no animal so fhy as the 

 argali, which it is almost impofsible to over- 

 take on such ground as it keeps to. When pur- 

 sued it does not run streight forward, but doubles 

 and turns like a hare, at the same time that 

 it scrambles up, and over the rocks with wonderful 

 agility. In the same proportion that the adult ar- 

 gali is wild and untameable, the lamb is easy to 



* We learn from Bruce's travels, oj^ rather we have there a confir- 

 mation ot what was known long ago, that the hovse is a native of a 

 •very hot climate, and is found in his greatest beauty, activity, fire 

 iSc. between the latitude lo" and 36' ; yet there is no part of the 

 world where that noble animal is reared in greater perfection than in 

 Great Britain, where by crofsing the breed, you have obtained alj the 

 ^u^lilifs of the different races united into one. 



