XI PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE 409 



ings, and contentions among the farmers of the 

 neighbourhood ; so it occurred to Seth Wright, 

 who was, like his successors, more or less cute, that 

 if he could get a stock of sheep like those with the 

 bandy legs, they would not be able to jump over 

 the fences so readily ; and he acted upon that idea. 

 He killed his old ram, and as soon as the young 

 one arrived at maturity, he bred altogether from 

 it. The result was even more striking than in the 

 human experiment which I mentioned just now. 

 Colonel Humphreys testifies that it always hap 

 pened that the offspring were either pure Ancons 

 or pure ordinary sheep ; that in no case was there 

 any mixing of the Ancons with the others. In 

 consequence of this, in the course of a very few 

 years, the farmer was able to get a very consider 

 able flock of this variety, and a large number of 

 them were spread throughout Massachusetts. Most 

 unfortunately, however I suppose it was because 

 they were so common nobody took enough notice 

 of them to preserve their skeletons ; and although 

 Colonel Humphreys states that he sent a skeleton 

 to the President of the Royal Society at the same 

 time that he forwarded his paper, I am afraid 

 that the variety has entirely disappeared ; for a 

 short time after these sheep had become prevalent 

 in that district, the Merino sheep were introduced ; 

 and as their wool was much more valuable, and as 

 they were a quiet race of sheep, and showed no 

 tendency to trespass or jump over fences, the Otter 



