,793- account of the Jhort tailed Jheep. 155 



resembling the mother, but with a fleece of wool 



and hair *. 



The brachiura or Rufsian ftieep, supports very 

 well the severity of a northern climate, and Dr 

 Pallas doubts not but it might pafs the 'u^inter ^ in 

 the plains of mountainous northern countnes, 

 where there is not much snow ; nay he even thinks 

 it might augment their hardynefs and strength, if we 

 are to judge from their habits and treatment of the 

 Iceland flocks, so well described by Anderson in his 

 account of that island. 



Dr Pallas remarked that on mountainous pas- 

 tures, exposed to the sun, such as on the acclivity of 

 the Ouralic chain, the Rufsian or ftiort tailed 

 fheep, were larger, fatter, and had a finer fieece. 



Crofsing the breed with the Tscherkefsian or long 

 tailed ihee^p, likewise mends both the stature and 

 fleece of the brachiura; whereas in its own natural 

 state, without admixture of other varieties of fheep, 

 it is but small, lean, and produces, in the northern 

 parts of Rufsia, a wool so extremely coarse, as on- 



* Has this tact been sufficiently ascertained ? I very much doubt 

 it. In many parts of Scotland the Hieep and goats go together pm- 

 miscuously at all seasons ; and notwithstanding what has been said by 

 Buffou, and other naturalists on that subject, it is a certain fact that 

 no person in these countries, ever saw a breed produced between the 

 goat and the fheep. This opinion seems to have been adopted merely 

 from the fhaggy appearance of the fleece of some breeds of flieep, 

 which much resembles the hair of a goat ; but these are found equally 

 in countries where no goats exist, as in those where goats aboound. 



Edit. 



