36 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



elsewhere seen, of a full-blood ram of this flock, owned 

 by Mr. Bulkley, of Philadelphia, and lent by him to 

 the writer in 1807.* This ram was very small, very 

 fine, and produced but 4 Ibs. of washed wool. His 

 " length of staple was somewhat less than that of Mr. 

 Livingston's rams." " He was extremely gentle, and 

 strongly marked with the carnation hue of skin ; had 

 spiral horns, and brownness of fleece surface, all of 

 which qualities he faithfully transmitted to his progeny 

 in their usual proportions." The " brownness penetra- 

 ted to some depth from the surface." His lambs, when 

 they came, were " covered with coarse hairs," to the 

 great suspicion of their paternity, until it was found 

 this hair dropped off, and that his subsequent crops 

 of lambs exhibited the same peculiarity. Here we 

 have a distinct hint of Paular or Infantado character- 

 istics. Yet Colonel Humphreys' sheep could scarcely 

 have been Paulars without some one alluding to their 

 throatiness a point which then attracted peculiar 

 notice, both because it was unusual and regarded as 

 unsightly. Besides, the sheep we now have among 

 us, which can trace a clear descent from Colonel Hum- 

 phreys' flock, are not marked by this peculiarity unless 

 it has been bred on them within the last fifteen or 

 twenty years. It can hardly be presumed that the 

 American Ambassador would have been placed by his 

 Spanish acquaintances in the hands of an agent who 

 would have purchased from an obscure flock, or one 

 not among the first. I do not build up a hypothesis 



* This writer mentions that he wrote the article on wool hi the 



Cyclopaedia; and he was the importer of the black Merinos next 



to be described, I have had considerable search made in Philadelphia 

 to discover his name, but as yet without success. 



