121 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



in the colder regions, the very opposite object is aimed at. 

 In the former case, the hair or feathers are thinly spread 

 over the body, while, in the latter, they form a close and 

 continuous covering. In the dogs of Guinea, and in the 

 African and Indian sheep, the fur is so very thin that they 

 may almost be denominated naked. In the Siberian dog 

 and Iceland sheep, on the other hand, the body is protected 

 by a thicker and longer covering. 



The clothing of animals, living in cold countries, is not 

 only different from that of the animals of warm regions in 

 its quantity, but in its arrangement. If we examine the 

 covering of swine of warm countries, we find it consisting 

 of bristles or hair of the same form and texture ; while the 

 same animals which live in colder districts, possess not only 

 common bristles or strong hair, but a fine frizzled wool 

 next the skin, over which the long hairs project. Between 

 the swine of the south of England, and the Scottish High- 

 lands, such differences may be observed. Similar appear- 

 ances present themselves among the sheep of warm and cold 

 countries. The fleece of those of England consists entirely 

 of wool ; while the sheep of Zetland and Iceland possess a 

 fleece, containing, besides the wool, a number of long hairs, 

 which give to it, when on the back of the animal, the ap- 

 pearance of being very coarse. The living races of Rhin- 

 oceros and Elephant, inhabitants of the warm regions, 

 have scarcely any hair upon their bodies ; while those 

 which formerly lived in the northern plains of Europe, the 

 entire carcases of which have been preserved in the ice in Si- 

 beria, were covered with fur similar to the Icelandic Sheep, 

 consisting of a thick covering of short frizzled wool, protect- 

 ed by long coarse hairs. These species, now extinct, pos- 

 sessed clothing suiting them for the climate where they 

 lived, and where they became at last enveloped in ice, 

 Had they been transported by any accident from a warmer 



