LETTER XFIL 



" The mountain's brow, 



Where sit* the shepherd on the gravs\ \.urf 



Inhaling, healthful, the descending sun ; 



Around him feed his roany-bleKting flock, 



Or' various cadence ; h.s sportive lambs nd goats, 



This way and that convolved in irisklal glte, 



Their frolics piny." THOMSON. 



DEAR SIR, 



X SHALL now proceed to entertain you with a de- 

 scription of another kind of animal, which, although 

 in some respects it bears a considerable resemblance 

 to the sheep, differs from it so widely in others, as tx> 

 give evident proofs of a distinction of species. This 

 you will read'ly perceive to be the goat, which in 

 some countries is esteemed no mean substitute for th 

 highly useful animal which was t.he subject of my 

 last. Before we proceed in this view of the works of 

 nature, we must cast a gkince at a creature which 

 seems to be so nearly allied to each of the two species, 

 as to form one of those connecting links which we so 

 often perceive in the continued chain of animal exis- 

 tence. 



THE MUFFLON, OR .MUSMON. 



So much resembles, in some respects, the sheep, and 

 in others, the goat, 'that it has, by diiicrem natural- 

 ists, been classed with each of the two species. Irs 

 horns resemble those of the ram; they are bent back- 

 ward, and in all their convolutions sometimes measure 

 from tive to seven feet in length. The old rams of 

 this kind oftfii have desperate conflicts, and some- 

 times precipitate one another from the summits of the 

 rocks which they frequent. From their covering, 

 which is hair, they seem to participate more, of the 

 species of the goat than that of the sheep, and tlu-y 

 appear to partake of the disposition of the former, in 

 frequenting the highest and most rugged parts of 

 in>un,ainoutf countries. This renders the hunting of 

 the musinon,. which is much practised by the Tartars. 



