102 sheep: Chap. III. 



of the conditions of life to which they have been exposed than 

 almost any other domestic animal. According to Pallas, and 

 more recently according to Erman, the fat-tailed Kirghisian 

 sheep, when bred for a few generations in Kussia, degenerate, 

 and the mass of fat dwindles away, " the scanty and bitter 

 herbage of the steppes seems so essential to their develop- 

 ment." Pallas makes an analogous statement with respect 

 to one of the Crimean breeds. Biirues states that the 

 Karakool breed, which produces a fine, curled, black, and 

 valuable fleece, when removed from its own canton near 

 Bokhara to Persia or to other quarters, loses its peculiar 

 fleece.^^ In all such cases, however, it may be that a change 

 of any kind in the conditions of life causes variability and 

 consequent loss of character, and not that certain conditions 

 are necessary for the development of certain characters. 



Great heat, however, seems to act directly on the fleece: 

 several accounts have been published of the change which 

 sheep imported from Europe undergo in the West Indies. 

 Dr. Nicholson of Antigua informs me tha'^., after the third 

 generation, the wool disapj^ears from the whole body, except 

 over the loins ; and the animal then appears like a goat with 

 a dirty door-mat on its back. A similar change is said to 

 take place on the west coast of Africa.^- On the other hand, 

 many wool-bearing sheep live on the hot plains of India. 

 Koulin asserts that in the lower and heated valleys of the 

 Cordillera, if the lambs are sheared as soon as the wool has 

 grown to a certain thickness, all goes on afterwards as usual ; 

 but if not sheared, the wool detaches itself in flakes, and 

 short shining hair like that on a goat is produced ever 

 afterwards. This curious result seems merely to be an ex- 

 aggerated tendency natural to the Merino breed, for as a 



^' Erman 's ' Travels in Siberia ' the Sierra Leone Company, as quoted 



(£ng. trans.), vol. i. p. 228. For Pallas in White's ' Gradation of Man,' p. 95. 



on the tut-tailed sheep, I quote from With respect to the change which 



Anderson's account of the ' Sheep of sheep undergo in the West indies, see 



Russia,' 1794, p. 34. With respect also Dr. Davy, in ' Edin. New. Phil, 



to the Crimean sheep, see Pallas' Journal,' Jan. 1852. For the state- 



' Travels' (Eng. trans.), vol. ii. p. 454. ment made bj- Roulin, see 'Mem. de 



For the Karakool sheep, see Burnes' I'Institut present, par divers Savans.' 



* Travels in Bokhara,' vol. iii. p. l.il. torn, vi., 18o5, p. 347. 



»' See Report of the Directors of 



