AN ACCOUNT OF, &c. 437 



more refined mode of life, it has been found, 

 that an adherence to their ancient customs and 

 practices will preserve them long as a distinct 

 race from the original inhabitants of the coun- 

 try to which they had emigrated. Examples 

 of this kind are frequent in the islands in the 

 eastern seas in the torrid zone, where the in- 

 habitants of the sea-coast, evidently strangers, 

 are in some degree polished, and of a brown 

 colour, while the ancient natives, who live in 

 the interior parts, are savage and black. Simi- 

 lar facts occur in respect to other species of 

 animals. It seems certain, for instance, that 

 fine woolled sheep, like the Spanish, never both 

 arose and sustained their breed in the northern 

 parts of Europe ; yet, by care, this feeble race, 

 after being formed in Spain, has been propa- 

 gated and preserved in very cold countries. 

 Thus the late Mr. Dryander, the learned libra- 

 rian of the Royal Society, informed me, that 

 the breed of fine woolled Spanish sheep had 

 been kept perfect in Sweden during a very long 

 term of years, I think he said a century. I 

 then, my memory be accurate upon this point, 

 we have here an example of a variety of animals, 

 much more liable to be affected by external 

 circumstances than the human race, being pre- 

 served without change, in a country very dif- 

 ferent from their own, by assimilating their new 



