672 



SHEEP. 



by the white portion turning dull and yellowish, and 

 long and coarse, so as to shade the fine grey wool 

 which is below. 



There is something revolting and also at variance 

 with the sound principles of political economy in the 

 obtaining of this fur. To sacrifice one animal for 

 the sake of its skin is bad enough only that it happens 

 that the greater part of the fur animals are those which 

 man makes a merit of killing, besides the value of the 

 skin, as they are all predatory animals, and most of 

 them very destructive ones ; but the idea of sacrificing 

 a ewe and a lamb for the sake of a lamb-skin, is one at 

 which not only feeling, but frugality itself, stands 

 aghast. Both the mother and the young are at this 

 time unfit for human food, or, at all events, they are 

 unwholesome and not nutritious ; and the very sheep 

 themselves read us a pretty sharp homily against this 

 species of cruelty, for the sheep do not eat the flower 

 stalk of the grass from the time that the flower ap- 

 pears till that at which the seeds ripen. In most 

 cases there is a conservation by Nature itself in the 

 time of reproduction, whatever may be the case with 

 the young when they have separated from the parent, 

 whether in the state of the organised animal or in 

 that of the egg. It is perhaps a palliation of this 

 cruel practice that it is performed by a barbarous 

 people, and in a place where sheep are not of the 

 greatest value ; but still it is equally repulsive to the 

 feelings of civilised men, and contrary to their no- 

 tions of proper economy in the management of 

 animals. 



When full-grown the Astrachan sheep are below 

 the ordinary size of the sheep of Europe. The horns 

 of the males curve backwards, and are spiral toward 

 the points ; the ears droop very much ; the usual 

 colour is dull white in the upper and coarser wool, 

 and grey in the under and finer ; the tail is not very 

 broad, but still it indicates that this breed belongs to 

 the broad-tailed races. 



There are many breeds of sheep in the south-east 

 of European Russia and the adjoining portion of 

 Asia, which differ from the sheep that yield the fur 

 in the way that has been described, but all of which 

 show that they are, to some extent or other, related 

 to the broad-tailed sheep which, as we have already 

 mentioned, occupy so vast a length of country from 

 south to north-east. One of these is wholly without 

 horns, has the line of the forehead nearly straight ; 

 the ears directed obliquely downward to the front ; 

 and appendages to the throat. It is white in the body, 

 and the wool is of good quality ; the face is of a dull 

 yellow colour ; and the tail, though very broad and 

 overlapping the buttocks, is short compared with 

 that of most of those connected with the broad-tailed 

 race. 



A little farther north in Siberia, and also in Eu- 

 ropean Russia, there is another breed which, instead 

 of being hornless like the last-mentioned one, has 

 generally four horns in the male. These horns vary 

 in number ; they are rarely fewer than four ia the 

 rams.sometimesthey are five, and in those cases one of 

 them takes a central position, and in other cases they 

 are six ; thev have appendages under the throat ; and 

 their covering, though long and thick, is very coarse, 

 and may be considered hair rather than wool. They 

 are very hardy animals, and endure without injury the 

 severest cold of those parts of Siberia and eastern 

 Russia in which they are found. Their covering is 

 of mixed colours, generally reddish-brown and dull 



white in the males, and dusky black and white in the 

 females. 



To enumerate all the Asiatic breeds of sheep would, 

 however, be a very tedious and not a very interesting 

 process ; for what with differences of climate and pas- 

 ture, what with the crossing of different races, tho 

 varieties are very many ; and not only this, but, as 

 is the case with many of the sheep of our own coun- 

 try, the same breed is often apt to break into varieties, 

 the causes of which cannot be very easily explained, 

 nor would it, in all probability be of very much value 

 though we could explain it. 



The fat-rumpcd s/ieeji of central Asia have the 

 accumulation of fat differently placed on the body 

 from any of those that we have yet noticed ; but it is 

 of the same consistency, and, of course, answers the 

 same purpose in the economy of the animals. They 

 have the line of the forehead a little arched ; the 

 muzzle slender ; the ears narrow and drooping, and 

 the horns small or wholly wanting. There are a good 

 many varieties of them, some with appendages to the 

 throat and some without, and they are called Persian 

 sheep, Tartarian sheep, and other names, according 

 to the places in which they are found. Their colours 

 are mixed, generally reddish-brown and white in the 

 male, and dusky black and white in the female ; their 

 wool is fine, and though, in the different countries in 

 which they are, they vary ''a good deal, they may 

 be regarded as, upon the whole, a valuable breed of 

 sheep. In the Caucasus, especially in Circassia, 

 there is a peculiar breed which have the tails so long 

 as to trail upon the ground. They have spiral horns of 

 no mean dimensions ; have coarse but very strong 

 wool, and are generally coloured, and often altogether 

 black. 



In India there are several breeds ; but altogether 

 India is not very favourable for sheep, either in re- 

 spect of wool or of flesh, as the one part of the year 

 is too warm and dry, and the rains are too heavy 

 during the other part. Some of the Indian sheep 

 may be said to be wholly without wool, and they are 

 as bare and lanky as skeletons. But in the high 

 grounds some of the breeds are better ; some of these 

 have the coat neatly curled into little screws, and of 

 a pure white colour. There are a good many varieties 

 both in India and in China, but they are every way 

 inferior to the sheep of the more northerly countries. 

 The wool is in general very coarse, and the flesh is 

 inferior. Animal food is so little used, however, by 

 the people of these countries, and especially by those 

 of India, that the rearing of sheep for the butcher is 

 a matter of very secondary importance. The superi- 

 ority of the wool is proved by the fact, that the coarse 

 woollens of British manufacture are among the most 

 saleable goods that can be carried to the Chinese 

 market ; and although the common people of India 

 wear little else than cotton, yet the finer woollens are 

 in demand for great personages, state appearances, 

 and the decoration of the temples and idols. 



In Europe the breeds are so numerous that the 

 details of them would furnish matter for a volume of 

 considerable size. In fact, Kurope may be considered 

 as pre-eminently, above all other parts of the world, 

 the region of sheep; and this partly because they 

 have been more attended to than in the other quar- 

 ters of the world, and partly because the pastures are 

 both more perennial and clothed with more abun- 

 dant and kindly grasses. No part of Europe is with- 

 out its sheep ; and in very many places they form 



