TRUE RELATION OF SCIENCE TO INDUSTRIES 295 



vidual is in turn a woolly and a hairy animal." A 

 cold climate even is capable of producing wool on ani- 

 mals which naturally do not have it. Some " pigs with 

 fleece are found in the cold plateaus of the Cordilleras ; 

 sheep with hair in the warm valleys of the Madeleine, 

 and hairless cattle on the burning plains of Mara- 

 quita." In the East there is a remarkable variation 

 in sheep, by which a race has been formed by selections 

 in which the tail is very long and deeply laid with fat, 

 which is considered a great delicacy. " So highly prized 

 is this character that the animals are furnished with 

 trucks on which they drag their precious tails about 

 from place to place." The differences in the texture 

 of the wool, which make some races, like the pure Meri- 

 nos, so valuable, have arisen by the combined influences 

 of climate, heredity, and selection, and it is only by the 

 most careful attention to selection that the fineness of 

 the wool can be retained in other than the same climates 

 in which it was at first produced. A remarkable in- 

 stance of variation, which by heredity and selection was 

 made to produce a new race, took place in our own coun- 

 try. "In 1791 a ram lamb was born in Massachu- 

 setts having short, crooked legs and a long back like 

 a turnspit dog. From this one lamb the otter or Ancon 

 semi-monstrous breed was raised. As these sheep could 

 not leap over the fences, it was supposed they would be 

 valuable." This breed, developed by selection, trans- 

 mitted its character so perfectly that Colonel Hum- 

 phreys, who made a special study of it, never heard of 

 but " one questionable case." When the Ancons were 

 placed in with other sheep they would keep together, 

 gradually separating themselves from the rest of the 

 flock. 



Another instance, also cited by Darwin, relates to 



