SHEEP. 319 



and attention with profane writers. Among these, Homer 

 and Hosiod, Virgil and Theocritus, introduced them with 

 evident delight in their pastoral themes ; while their heroes 

 and demi-gods, Hercules and Ulysses, ./Eneas and Numa, 

 carefully perpetuated them throughout their regal domains. 

 In modern times they have commanded the attention of the 

 most enlightened nations ; and their prosperity has in no in- 

 stance been independent of those useful animals, wherever wool 

 and its manufactures have been regarded as essential staples. 

 Spain and Portugal, for more than two centuries, were the 

 most enterprizing nations of Europe, and during that period 

 they excelled in the production and manufacture of wool. 

 Flanders, for a time, was before England in the perfection of 

 the arts and the enjoyments of life, and England then sent the 

 little wool she raised to that country to be manufactured. Her 

 politic sovereigns soon found this a losing game, and offered 

 large bounties for the importation of artists and machinery. 

 By a systematic and thorough course of legislation, which 

 looked to the utmost protection and augmentation of wool and 

 woolens, she has carried their production bpyond anything 

 the world has ever seen. The small islands of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, in addition to the support of their 25 000 000 of 

 people, 15,000,000 of cattle, 2,250,030 horses, 18,003,000 

 swine, and innumerable smaller domestic animals, maintain 

 50,000,000 sheep, worth $300,000,000 ; and besides manu- 

 facturing nearly all their fleeces, annually import an equal 

 amount from abroad. The sumptuary law for burying the 

 dead in woolen, still occupies its place in their statute book. 

 And beyond all question, England is the leading power of the 

 nineteenth century, in the combination of all those qualities, 

 which constitute national greatness, civilization and strength. 



VARIETIES. 



Naturalists have divided the wild sheep into four varieties. 

 The Musimon (Ovis Musimon,) inhabiting Corsica, Sardinia 

 and other islands of the Mediterranean, the mountainous 

 parts of Spain and Greece and some other regions bordering 

 upon that inland sea, have been frequently domesticated and 

 mixed with the long cultivated breeds. The Argali (O. Am- 

 man) ranges over the steppes or elevated plains of Central 

 Asia, northward and eastward to the ocean. They are larger, 

 more hardy and more untameable than the Musimon. The 

 Rocky Mountain Sheep (O. Montana,) frequently called the 

 big-horn by our western hunters, is found on the prairies west 



