344 



THE POPULAB EDUCATOE. 



RECREATIVE NATURAL HISTORY. 



SHEEP. 



IT is, perhaps, unnecessary to inform any reader that the sheep 

 family belong to the great and most useful order of ruminants, 

 having, therefore, the same complex digestive system as the 

 oxen and deer. For a description of the fourfold stomach of 

 rwr^Jnating animals, we must refer to the paper on the ox 

 family.* Sheep resemble the goats so closely that Baron 

 Cuvier actually classed the two species in one tribe the Ca- 

 pridce.f The Englishman who compares a goat with a South 

 Down or a Leicester sheep, may marvel much at such a 

 zoological arrangement. But those who have obsei-ved the 

 wild goat (JSgagrus) of the Caucasian highlands, and also the 

 Mouflon, or wild sheep of Southern Europe, will be fully aware 

 of the little difference between the two races. One means of 

 certainly distinguishing the two has of late years been repeatedly 

 noticed ; but 

 this would be 

 of no use to 

 the casual ob- 

 server. It is 

 simply a struc- 

 tural peculia- 

 rity in the foot 

 of the sheep, 

 found in all the 

 domesticated, 

 and in, at least, 

 two of the wild 

 varieties, but 

 never detected 

 in any of the 

 goats. This is 

 a small canal 

 opening at the 

 pastern joint, 

 the true use 

 of which is 

 i> present un- 

 known. Some 

 diseases of the 

 hoof arise from 

 this " sao " be- 

 cominginflamed 

 by sharp bits of 

 gravel entering 

 the opening. 

 Such a mark 

 may bo suffi- 

 cient to enable 

 an anatomist to 

 distinguish any 

 variety of the 



sheep from every kind of goat, but is no guide at all to the tra- 

 veller, who is unable to institute a minute examination. 



One high honour seems to belong to the sheep : it was 

 probably the earliest animal brought under subjection to man, 

 and thus became the first link between the human and the 

 brute creation. Abel was " a keeper of sheep," and the ancient 

 Sabaaans exalted this first shepherd to the rank of a deity. The 

 Egyptian divinities, Ammon and Cneph, are represented with 

 rams' heads, the statues of Jupiter Ammon have rams' horns, 

 and the flatterers of Alexander the Great placed the same sym- 

 bols on the heads of his statues. The starry zodiac does honour 

 to this animal, for almost every one knows the rank which Aries 

 (the ram) holds among the constellations. Then we have the 

 mysterious voyage of the Argonauts to recover the famous 

 golden fleece a story which is yet a puzzle to historian and 

 geographer. Thus, if the sheep has not received the honours 

 of heathen worship paid to the ox, it has been highly exalted 

 by the reverence of early ages. 



No records enable us to state the period in which these 



* See page 273 of this volume. 



t From capra, a she-goat. In such names as caprida, etc. , the 

 termination idai denotes relationship ; thus, capridce includes all animals 

 rtloted to the goats. 



animals were introduced to Britain. The Eomans, probably, 

 brought them to our island, and seem to have even established 

 manufactories for making and dyeing woollen cloths. Venta 

 Belgarum, or Winchester, is one of the places where the short 

 wools of ancient Britain were manufactured by Celtic or Latin 

 weavers. Thus, if the Eomans massacred the Druids, they 

 favoured sheep and encouraged looms. These primary British 

 sheep are thought to have resembled our present South Downs, 

 upon whose black muzzles and legs we may now look with ad- 

 ditional interest. 



We must omit, in a paper of this brevity and character, all 

 minute descriptions of the numerous varieties of sheep pro- 

 duced by the care of the scientific breeder, and found in both 

 English and foreign folds. The hornless and long-woolled 

 Leicesters were brought from their original coarseness to their 

 present beauty and value by the perseverance of Bakewell 

 and his successors. The old portrait of the South Down sheep 



is by no means 

 attractive, but 

 this variety has 

 now become, by 

 good manage- 

 ment, the pet 

 of our Southern 

 and Midland 

 farmers. One 

 hundred pounds 

 of mutton from 

 a two-years' old 

 South Down, 

 and four pounds 

 of good comb- 

 ing wool, may 

 well make this 

 contented and 

 well-behaved 

 sheop a favour- 

 ite. We say 

 well - behaved, 

 for be it known 

 unto all that 

 some of these 

 animals are by 

 no means the 

 quiet and docile 

 creatures which 

 pastoral poets 

 delight to paint. 

 They will break 

 bounds with 

 the utmost de- 

 termination and 

 scatter them- 

 selves, in par- 

 ties, far over an open country, driving both dogs and shepherds to 

 their wits' ends. The South Down disdains such conduct, and 

 therefore gives little trouble when pasturing on the open downs 

 of Sussex or Hampshire. The Dorset white-faced and black- 

 horned sheep is called by Mr. Bell " one of the handsomest in 

 any part of England." Wo are bound, however, in candour to 

 state that beauty, pure and simple, does not form the main at- 

 traction of the Dorsets with the farmer, but the early period 

 of the year at which the lambs are ready for the market. Lamb, 

 eight weeks old in December, will fetch no small price from an 

 epicure, and therefore is the Dorset variety prized. The " battle 

 of life" influences the fortunes of sheep and men. The once 

 esteemed Eyeland breed cf Herefordshire, the Morfe variety 

 of Shropshire, and the Tedderly short- woolled sheep of Stafford- 

 shire have been unable to answer the calls to produce both 

 abundance of meat and wool. The Leicesters have triumphed 

 in the fierce competition. No nation consumes so much mutton 

 as the English, and so it has come to pass that a sheep pro- 

 ducing the finest wool, but little meat, is rejected for one yield- 

 ing an abundant supply for the butcher, and also a fair quantity 

 of wool, though not the finest. Thus a good South Down, 

 though the wool might only sell for two shillings the pound, 

 would be preferred in England to the once famous Merino, the 

 j wool of which might fetch four shillings the pound. The 



THE MOTJFLON AND THE COMMON SHEEP. 



