132 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



European Turkey differently populated, and under different institutions, it 

 mitrht constitute another exception. 



Central and Northern Russia, like the States north of Germany, 

 are north of the wool zone. Their winters are too long and severe to 

 allow them to compete with regions lying farther south, in wool-growing. 



Asia Minor, or Turkey in Asia, and Persia have been alluded to — the 

 former, much of it, a fine country with a most delightful climate, but its 

 natural advantages all neutralized by its political systems and the charac- 

 ter of its population — the latter, except in occasional favored positions, 

 such as the valleys of Shiraz and Ispahan, a land of mountain and desert, 

 of intense heat and intense cold. 



Independent Tartary, lying immediately north of it, is less exposed to 

 the hot winds of Arabia, but more so to the freezing ones of Siberia. Its 

 vnst dry plains are usually deserts, excepting on the borders of its exceed- 

 ly rare streams. Great Bucharia, however, in the south-east, on the head 

 waters of the Amoo (Oxus) — from the Capital of which Timour (Tamer- 

 lane) issued on his desolating path of conquest — is a country of great fer- 

 tility. Its natural beauties constitute a favorite theme with the poets and 

 geographers of Persia and Arabia. Since the opening of the navigation of 

 the Indus, it has annually sent some wool to Bombay, which constitutes a 

 part of that which is shipped thence to England, and is known in Table 

 S as East Indian wool. 



Afghanistan and Beloochistan, protected on the north from the Siberian 

 winds by the lofty Hindoo Koosh mountains, and less exposed on the south 

 to those of Arabia, exhibits a milder and less variable climate than that of 

 the conterminous regions of Persia. Among the Plighlands of the north, 

 and those skirting the Indus on the east, there is much good pasturage. 

 Sir Alexander Barnes states that four-fifths of the whole surface of Cabul, 

 a Province of the former, is excellent pasture land. The wool of the broad- 

 tailed sheep of these countries also finds its way, by the Indus, to Bombay, 

 and is classed as East India wool in the Table. 



From the high, cold, mountain regions of Thibet, Little Bucharia, &c., 

 some wools are exported, through the same channels, which come under 

 the same classification. These countries also export shawl wool.* Most 

 of China north of the great Desert of Cobi is a cold, mountainous country. 

 The southern portion, or China Proper, is too densely populated and closely 

 enltivated to be devoted to pasturage. 



The wool trade which followed the opening of the Indus (the raw ma- 

 terial being supplied by Afghanistan, Great Bucharia, Thibet and some 

 of the Hindostanese Provinces) might doubtless be swelled into one 

 of great importance, particulai'ly by introducing finer breeds of sheep; 

 but we can scarcely expect this, from what we know of the habits, agri- 

 cultural and commercial, of the population. Among constant political 

 changes wrought by the only Asiatic argument — the sword — the personal 

 habits and occupations of the Asiatic remain ever the same, and are, per- 

 haps, the best type of persistency to be found in anything short of im- 

 mobile matter. Indeed, the stony features of the Sphinx have changed 

 scarcely less through revolving generations, than have the ethnic ones of 

 this great family of the human race ! 



Let us now pass to those regions of the Old "World, south of the Equa- 

 tor, included in the wool-growing zone. 



The southern extremity of Africa — the Cape of Good Hope — is included 



* Tlip tabln-lnnd of Thibet is elevated 15.000 feet above the level of the sea. Mr. Trail remarks that every 

 aniiniil here, includiiis Carnivora. prudui:e that down under their hair which is known aa shaiol wool— 

 though that luauufiictured comes mainly from a species of goat. 



