52 Permanence and Evolution. 



said to have originated in Massachusetts in 

 1791, we know much less as it is now 

 extinct, and we have apparently only one 

 account of it, from a Colonel Humphreys, 

 written in 1819, which account we have no 

 means of controlling or verifying. I suspect 

 that there is some mistake or exaggeration in 

 the alleged suddenness of the appearance of 

 this breed, and that more time and more 

 selection was really employed than appears. 

 We know nothing of the breed of the sheep 

 among whom the first ancon lamb was born, 

 but it seems (vide Youatt) that the sheep of 

 America were in a highly mongrelised state 

 a condition* extremely favourable to reversion. 

 We have also reason to believe that this form 

 has been observed in Europe, and therefore 

 may be considered as a race of unknown origin 

 (vide Isidore Geoffrey St. Hilaire, " Histoire 

 Naturelle"). 



* According to Darwin, "Animals and Plants under Domes- 

 tication," vol. ii. p. 13, et seq. 



