128 GENUfe JVIS. 



and in the presence of a beard, with sharp-pointed 

 ears ; and to these might be added the remark of an 

 able naturalist, that the males of Capra are always 

 very strongly odorous during the rutting season, while 

 the reverse is the case with the sheep ; and it is 

 mentioned in the Iconographia of Bonaparte, as a 

 characteristic mark, that Ovis or the True Sheep are 

 always furnished with an interdigital hole, opening 

 on the anterior part of each foot, and secreting a se- 

 baceous substance. This, he remarks, is wanting 

 not only in Capra but in every other ruminant. They 

 are timid, defenceless, and of a more dependent cha- 

 racter than the Goats. 



The Sheep is certainly one of the animals which 

 was first placed by the Divine Providence under 

 subjection to man. From the earliest period of the 

 world's history it has continued administering to 

 the wants of almost all nations, and at the present 

 time, is more extensively used in the human economy 

 than any other animal. It is even sometimes em- 

 ployed in the less usual character of a beast of burden. 

 Major Skinner relates in his excursions in India an 

 instance of this fact. 



" I met several merchants, natives of the province 

 of Bisehur, returning from it, driving a flock of sheep, 

 bearing loads from thirty- five to forty pounds each. 

 The burdens were swung in bags over their backs, 

 without any cords to bind them on, and they moved 

 up the steep crags with the greatest nimblenc's ana 

 indifference to the weight. It is very we to find a 



