THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 153 



progeny of Gratio Kelleia. The young lambs were almost 

 always either pure Ancons, or pure ordinary sheep.* But 

 when sufficient Ancon sheep were obtained to interbreed 

 with one another, it was found that the offspring was always 

 pure Ancon. Colonel Humphreys, in fact, states that he 

 was acquainted with only " one questionable case of a 

 contrary nature.'* Here, then, is a remarkable and well- 

 established instance, not only of a very distinct race being 

 established per saltum, but of that race breeding " true " 

 at once, and showing no mixed forms, even when crossed 

 with another breed. 



By taking care to select Ancons of both sexes, for breeding 

 from, it thus became easy to establish an extremely well- 

 marked race ; so peculiar that, even when herded with other 

 sheep, it was noted that the Ancons kept together. And 

 there is every reason to believe that the existence of this 

 breed might have been indefinitely protracted ; but the 

 introduction of the Merino sheep, which were not only very 

 superior to the Ancons in wool and meat, but quite as quiet 

 and orderly, led to the complete neglect of the new breed, 

 so that, in 1813, Colonel Humphreys found it difficult to 

 obtain the specimen, whose skeleton was presented to Sir 

 Joseph Banks. We believe that, for many years, no 

 remnant of it has existed in the United States. 



Gratio Kelleia was not the progenitor of a race of six- 

 fingered men, as Seth Wright's ram became a nation of 

 Ancon sheep, though the tendency of the variety to per- 

 petuate itself appears to have been fully as strong in the 

 one case as in the other. And the reason of the difference 

 is not far to seek. Seth Wright took care not to weaken 

 the Ancon blood by matching his Ancon ewes with any but 

 males of the same variety, while Gratio Kelleia's sons were 

 too far removed from the patriarchal times to intermarry 

 with their sisters ; and his grandchildren seem not to have 



* Colonel Humphreys' statements are exceedingly explicit on this 

 point : " When an Ancon ewe is impregnated by a common ram, 

 the increase resembles wholly either the ewe or the ram. The 

 increase of the common ewe impregnated by an Ancon ram follows 

 entirely the one or the other, without blending any of the distin- 

 guishing and essential peculiarities of both. Frequent instances 

 have happened where common ewes have had twins by Ancon rams, 

 when one exhibited the complete marks and features of the ewe, 

 the other of the ram. The contrast has been rendered singularly 

 striking, when one short-legged and one long-legged lamb, produced 

 at a birth, have been seen sucking the dam at the same time." 

 Philosophical Transactions, 1813, Pt. I. pp. 89, 90. 



