670 



SHEEP. 



the quantity of the plain, may be both obtained 

 in the maximum of perfection which they can 

 jointly have in the same subject. These, however, 

 are professional matters, though at the same time 

 matters of great public interest ; and we merely 

 mention them to show how wide a field is opened up 

 for useful study in the single genus, and probably 

 species, of the sheep. We shall now enumerate some 

 of the varieties or breeds, and in respect of these 

 Africa appears to claim the preference over the 

 other quarters of the world. The drought of the 

 climate might perhaps lead us to expect this. 



THE LONG-LEGGED SHEEP is one of the chief in 

 the northern and central parts of Africa. The general 

 characters are : the legs long, and the form of the 

 body stout, but the flank not so plump as those of 

 the European breeds : the profile of the forehead is 

 arched ; the ears stick out nearly at right angles to 

 the central line ; the neck is short ; but the tail is 

 proportionally longer than in the common sheep : 

 there are two lands of covering on the body ; on the 

 fore part it is long and shaegy, and on the hind part 

 it is woolly ; on the breast especially it is very long, 

 and pendent almost to the knees ; the horns are 

 rather short, curving round the ears, but forming only 

 a portion of a circle. This seems to be pretty nearly 

 allied to the bearded wild sheep of Africa, of which 

 mention has already been made. But there are 

 breeds in the different parts of the country which 

 vary a good deal in their individual characters, as one 

 might be prepared to expect in so wide a country as 

 Africa. 



THE MOROCCO SHEEP have the rough hair on the 

 fore part of the body shorter than in the general 

 type of the race ; but the wool on the other part is 

 longer. The ears are small, and so are the horns, 

 which curve outwards. The colour is in general 

 white, but occasionally varied with reddish-brown or 

 liver colour. They are pastured in large flocks on 

 the dry plains, both between the mountains and the 

 sea, and on the other side of the mountains toward 

 the desert. 



THE GUINEA SHEEP are without the long hair on 

 the fore part of the body, and the long wool on the 

 hind ; and in some instances they are nearly without 

 wool. The horns form nearly semicircles, with the 

 points directed to the front. They are not long, but 

 rather stout. The general colour of the Guinea slice]) 

 is white : but they have usually some black on the 

 head ; and it is said that, in proportion as the black is 

 more abundant, the horns are smaller. The ears are 

 pendulous in some of the varieties, and there are traces 

 of goitres or enlargements on the sides of the neck. 

 This breed is found not only in Guinea, but in the 

 larger tracts of habitable ground which spot the 

 desert. Some of thcrn are without wool upon the 

 body, and with a mane of silky hairs down the ridge 

 of the neck, and partially on the shoulders. The 

 females are without horns. 



THE CONGO SHEEP, inhabiting as they do a climate 

 almost immediately under the equator, and intensely 

 hot, are almost wholly denuded of wool, or indeed of 

 covering of any kind ; and they are lank, and appa- 

 rently feeble, as compared with the sheep of temperate 

 countries. The hair upon them is thin and bare, and 

 only a very little longer on the throat than on the 

 rest of the body. The horns are very short, and 

 bent backwards ; the ears hang down the sides of the 

 face ; and there are two goitres or pendulous sub- 



stances under the throat. The tail is long, but slen- 

 der, and almost without hair; the flanks fall in very 

 much ; and the colour is white, with clouds and 

 patches of dull rusty brown. 



Of ANGOLA SHEEP there are several breeds, 

 and they differ in many particulars from the last 

 mentioned, as well as from each other. One of the 

 most characteristic of these is the goitred sheep, 

 which, in its external appearance, differs very much 

 from the sheep which we are accustomed to see in 

 Europe. They are lower on the legs than most of 

 the breeds in the west of Africa. The hair upon the 

 body is short and close, not in the least like the wool 

 of common sheep. The ears hang quite down by 

 the cheeks ; the horns are very small, curvin? for- 

 wards ; the outline of the forehead is very convex, 

 and it is also rounded from the depression between 

 the eyes to the muzzle. There are two appendages 

 which tend to increase the irregularity of form in the 

 head of this sheep. There is one large rounded 

 accumulation, or rather two lobes of it, under the chin, 

 and another, and rather larger one, beginning at the 

 base of the horns, and reaching backwards a little on 

 the occiput. These look as if they were deformities 

 resulting from disease, but such is not the case. They 

 are not glandular affections, like the goitres. They 

 are provisions of nature for the subsistence of the 

 animal at those times when, from the burning up of 

 the vegetation in the dry season, it can find but little 

 food. They consist of hard and curdy fat, very simi- 

 lar to what accumulates in the hump of the camel, or 

 in the dewlap of the ox ; and this sheep, as an animal 

 something intermediate between the camel and the 

 ox, has both the hump and the dewlap, only they are 

 seated much farther forward on the body. Fat of this 

 description is not so liable to be softened and turned 

 to oil, by exposure to heat, as the common fat which 

 animals accumulate in temperate climates ; and thus 

 it suits well with the habits of animals which inhabit 

 tropical countries. It is only, or chiefly, in the gra- 

 minivorous animals that it is found ; and it is found 

 only in such of therrras are not fitted for a very ex- 

 tended range of motion at the different seasons. The 

 antelopes, for instance, are capable of dashing over 

 many hundreds of miles ; and they can thus follow 

 the season of fertility, as it changes from latitude to 

 latitude. Sheep have not this extensive power of 

 ranging ; and thus, in proportion as the dry season 

 upon their pastures tends to produce sterility, they 

 accumulate stores of this curdy fat to support them- 

 selves under it, whereas the ranging antelopes require 

 no such provision, and accordingly they have it not. 

 The camel, though a strong and patient animal, is not 

 a ranging one, and it is also provided with a store in 

 the hump against the time of famine in its native loca- 

 lities. The means which animals thus have of storing 

 up a portion of the produce of the time of plenty, to 

 serve them when the reverse comes, are among the 

 most extraordinary and at the same time the most 

 instructive adaptations in the whole animal kingdom. 



One other character of the goitred sheep of Angola 

 is the great length of the tail. It is not thick, or in 

 any way loaded with fat, but it nearly touches the 

 ground. The colours of the animal are generally 

 pale brown on the upper part, and white on the 

 under. 



There are other breeds of sheep in the same coun- 

 try with this one, which, in some particulars at least, 

 have more resemblance to the sheep of Europe ; and 



