MANIFESTED IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM 79 



due to the cold of the higher land, for sheep and other 

 domestic animals are said to be extremely prolific in 

 Lapland." 



If sheep are very prolific in Lapland, the amount of 

 food will hardly account for the relative infertility of 

 mountain sheep, since Lapland is not exactly a land 

 flowing with milk and honey. It appears to be a common 

 notion that the small size of mountain sheep is due to 

 scarcity of food. Even if mountain pastures were neces- 

 sarily poor, it would not follow that the sheep would be 

 badly fed. Sheep are run so many to the acre, according 

 to its feeding value. Thus we have one-sheep, two-sheep, 

 three-sheep pastures, and so on ; while when the land is 

 very poor it becomes a case of so many acres to a sheep. 

 Mountain sheep are by no means ill-fed, and are usually 

 quite fat when killed. If they were ill-fed they would 

 not necessarily be small. Rather they would tend to 

 be lean and bony. To what then shall we attribute their 

 relative infertility ? 



Mountain sheep are very active. A writer says : "If 

 there is one quality for which the mountain sheep is more 

 remarkable than another, that quality is amazing activity ; 

 he can get over rough ground at a speed which would 

 leave a Leicester sheep standing still, and his jumping 

 powers are comparable with those of the deer." 1 These 

 small-bodied, active animals bear much the same relation 

 to the big-framed, sluggish lowland sheep as the small- 

 framed and active townsman bears to the big, raw-boned, 

 slow-thinking countryman, or as the small-bodied, 

 energetic and active worker bee bears to the big-framed, 

 sluggish queen bee. In short, they are conspicuous for 

 nervous energy. This is probably due to the keen and 

 bracing air of the high altitudes, and we need not be 

 1 Chambers 1 Journal, December, 1911. 



