'^?03* account of the BoucharianJIjiUpc 30/ 



maik, the fine black is dearest and roost esteem- 

 ed. 



To obtain these valuable furs, the Bouchariaa 

 Tartars purchase whole flocks of male l.ambs *, just 

 dropped from their mothers ; as to kill a female till 

 past the age of breeding, is held as a kind of crime 

 by all the Tartar hordes ; such is their reverence for 

 an animal which constitutes their greatest riches, 

 and the propagation and care of which is the great 

 businefs of their lives ; so that all the furs we see of 

 this species sold by the Tartars, are from young 

 rams \. 



* The circumstance of the Boucharians purchasing whole flocks of 

 lambs accounts for the doctor's having not seen any full grown 

 Iheep of the Boucharian variety, and for their being all about the 

 same age, viz. two years ; that appeared an extraordinary case to the 

 author of the paper, who forgot to demand an explanation frorn Dc 

 Pallas. Areticus. 



\ There is a peculiarity respecting .these (Keep that deserves to 

 be taken notice of here ; iizz-. the singular beauty of the furs of the 

 new dropped lambs ; which affords a clear proof that the wool is 

 quite free from hair ; for it is observable among the fheep of Britain, 

 that when any hair is among the wool, that fliows itself at the birth 

 of the lamb; .as it is then more fully grown than the wool, and 

 makes the fleece of an unsightly Ihagged appearance. 



Every particular in the description of these flieep seems to indi- 

 cate, that they are a breed efsentiaJly distinct from any of those 

 reared in Europe ; and that the fleece is of a nature totally different 

 from theirs in some very important particulars. The most universal 

 quality of European wool is that it is crisped or frizzed, somewhat 

 of the nature of negroes hair. Even the kinds of wool that we 

 distinguifli by the term lank, and which sometimes hang in locks, 

 is in no case free of that kind of crispinefs. From the glofsy silky 

 like appearance of these furs, it would seem that this peculiarity is 



