EARLY PROiiKESS OF THIi WOOL TRADE. 81 



and the sea wis ever after called the Hellespont: 

 but Phryxus arrived safely at Colchis, between the 

 Black and Caspian seas, and having sacrificed the 

 ram to Mars, hung the fleece in a temple dedicated 

 to that god. By this the ancients no doubt meant 

 to intimate, either that Bceotia, the birth-place of 

 so many talented Greeks, furnished the people of 

 Colchis viith sheep, or that they sent them sums of 

 money in exchange for the wool of Caucasus. That 

 the latter is the more probable, is apparent from Ovid's 

 account of the Argonautic expedition, in which he 

 shows the hardships which Jason encountered in his 

 successful endeavours (B. C. 1223) to bring the golden 

 fleece from Colchis back to Greece — implying the 

 value of the article, and leading us to believe, that the 

 Colchians had, by the aid of severe penalties, long 

 monopolized the growth of wool. Moreover, Mount 

 Caucasus and its neighbourhood form the favoured 

 nursery whence the improved fleece-bearing animals 

 have gradually spread over the world ; and as such 

 would be looked upon, at the time I speak of, by adja- 

 cent tribes with jealousy and hatred ; for where is the 

 nation that can calmly behold a compeer engrossing a 

 hoard of wealth, without struggling to lower their 

 prices by a market of their own ? 



Thus one country after another became impressed 

 with the advantages to be derived from the husbandry 

 of sheep. Nation after nation improved its agriculture, 

 by the introduction of the animal, till at last the Romans 

 became pre-eminent for their attention to its culture, 

 and to the manufactures of which it is the fruitful 

 source. Generous even to an enemy, and attacking 



