FAMILY CAPRID^E ; ARGALI, MOUFFLON. 309 



one ; and thus the difference is of considerable importance. The 

 Argali, or wild Sheep of Siberia, which inhabits the mountains 

 of Asia, and attains the size of the Fallow Deer, and the 

 Moufflon of Corsica, a smaller species inhabiting the mountainous 

 parts of Corsica and Sardinia, but not confined to them, have 

 been supposed to be the original stock of the domestic Sheep ; 

 but, for the reasons already mentioned, this is probably an error. 

 In these and other allied species of wild Sheep, some of which 

 are found in all quarters of the globe, the body is covered with a 

 harsh kind of hair, having beneath it, at its roots, a short spiral 

 wool, which in winter becomes longer and fuller. In some 

 neglected breeds of the common Sheep, the wool becomes mixed 

 with long hairs, which more or less obscure the wool ; and in 

 the Cashmir and Angora Goats, the long outer garment is hair, 

 and the short under-coat exquisitely fine wool. Hence it may 

 be reasonably inferred that, whatever the original stock of the 

 common Sheep, its coat resembled that of the wild species at 

 present existing ; and that in the early ages of Man's history, 

 the shepherds must have selected those individuals for breeding, 

 in which the wool predominated ; by following up which system, 

 the wool-bearing breed would be at length permanently esta- 

 blished. In the same manner, the silky-haired varieties of the 

 Goat were probably introduced ; and the establishment of any 

 new breed must take place upon similar principles ( 111). 



275. The preceding families include all the animals which 

 agree in the general characters of the Ruminant Order, as 

 formerly stated ( 259) ; and there now only remain two aber- 

 rant groups ; the MOSCHIDJS, Musk-Deer tribe ; and the CAME- 

 LID.E or Camel tribe. Of these, the latter conduct us towards 

 Pachydermata, with which they have been associated by some 

 naturalists; whilst the former are intermediate between the 

 Camels and the true Ruminants. 



276. The family MOSCHID^ takes its name from the circum- 

 stance, that the peculiar strongly-odorous substance termed Musk 

 is obtained from one of the species which it includes ; and with 

 this, other animals nearly allied to it in structure, but not pro- 

 ducing musk, are associated, on account of the correspondence in 



