ARGALI. 95 



front, that the opponent generally runs off in alarm. 

 It may appear singular to persons who have not attended 

 much to these animals, to be told, that so varied is the 

 expression of their countenances, that the mountain- 

 shepherds are able to distinguish each of their sheep, 

 though five or six hundred in number, by its face. The 

 uses of the sheep are well known. We derive from 

 them by far the most important part both of our cloth- 

 ing and food. From their fleece are woven our coats : 

 from the skin, leather is manufactured for the covers of 

 books and numerous other purposes ; their entrails are 

 made into strings for musical instruments ; and their 

 milk, in several countries, is made both into butter and 

 cheese. 



The varieties of the Common Sheep are extremely 

 numerous. Some of them are entirely destitute of horns, 

 and others, as the Iceland sheep, have three, four, five, 

 and even six horns each : some are clothed with hair, 

 instead of wool : some, as the broad-tailed sheep of 

 Syria and Barbary, have this part of their body so long 

 and large, as even to trail on the ground, and require a 

 piece of board, with wheels, to keep it from galling; 

 and others, the fat-rumped sheep of Tartary, have two 

 large, naked prominences on the rump, and no tail. 

 There are about fourteen distinct varieties of sheep in 

 the British Islands, of which six are homed, and eight 

 polled. 



Argali, or Mouflon. In the alpine regions of the in- 

 terior of Asia, in Kamtschatka, and the Kurili islands, 

 the Argali are found in considerable numbers. So great 

 are their agility and watchfulness, that it is not an easy 

 matter to approach them, and the hunters find it neces- 

 sary to use every caution to come within gun-shot of 



