ADAPTATION OF THE SHEEP TO CLIMATE. 



73 



iu cast of countenance to the European, as the negro 

 does to the higher orders of the ape. The same may 

 be noticed among sheep, but this is sufficient for the 

 present. 



The changes induced by climate, result from the 

 working of a power inherent in most animals and vege- 

 tables, by which they are suited within certain limits, 

 for bearing up against removal from their ordinary 

 localities, and assuming a different cast, as the place of 

 their exile may differ in degree from that which they 

 have left. This gradual adaptation to circumstances 

 by an accommodating power is termed, in philosophical 

 language, acclimation. 



(68.) Adaptation of the Sheep to Climate, — No 

 animal varies more than the sheep, and none so 

 speedily adapts itself to climate ; it would almost 

 appear that nature, convinced of its great utility, had 

 bestowed upon it a constitution so pliant, as to ena- 

 ble it to accommodate itself to any point in a wide 

 scale of temperature ; for though its natural situation 

 as a wool-bearing animal, like that of man appears to 

 be the wine countries, yet with him, it has spread to 

 every quarter of the globe, becoming impressed at 

 every change with some peculiarity, alterable only by 

 a change of situation, and varying, we might almost 

 affirm, with the weather ; for, where the temperature is 

 equable, there does the animal preserve unchanged an 

 atmospheric stamp, and defies our efforts to alter the 

 breed ; while under a fluctuating sky we can model it 

 at will, though in this case, continued exertions are 

 required to secure tiiem for any length of time in aa 



