CAUSES OF VARIOUS FORMS OF HORNS. 



79 



There exists a strong tendency to the propagation of 

 this monstrosity, which is extremely frequent in the 

 Asiatic races, but is also met with in a breed that is 

 eommon in the north of Europe, and is said to have 

 been originally derived from Iceland, and the Feroe 

 Islands. In this case it is unconnected with any other 

 anomaly, but in the flocks of the nomad hordes of Tar- 

 tary, it is usually combined with an enlargement of the 

 tail, and adjacent parts, by the deposition of fat, fre- 

 quently to an enormous extent." 



(73.) Causes of the various forms of the Horn.-^ 

 Horns are seldom met with in the sheep of hot climates, 

 occurring more frequently in cold and temperate re- 

 gions ; thus following closely the development of the 

 other coverings, to which, as before stated (19), they 

 are strictly analogous. The fleece consists of two por- 

 tions—hair and wool, the one predominating more or 

 less over the other, as the climate may direct. The 

 form of the horns is always in unison with the charac- 

 ter of the fleece : thus, if the animal is covered with 

 hair, as in the goat, the horns will be straight ; but if 

 it is clothed with wool, as in the sheep, the horns will 

 be curved. The same holds good in other animals. 

 The reason of this appears to lie in the tendency which 

 the hair or wool, constituting the horny sheath, has to 

 model th3 form of t'ne supporting bone. The fibre of 

 hair is nearly straight ; that of wool is, on the other 

 hand, remarkable for the number of tufted curls, or 

 small spiral ringlets, into which it naturally contracts ; 

 so that a Merino ram, for example, will never be found 

 with rectilinear horns, nor a true goat with twisted 

 ones. The truth of these remarks is borne out by ob- 



