28 Essay on Sheep n 



them. The broad-tailed sheep are of three 

 species. In the one the tail is not only broad but 

 long, and so weighty that the shepherds are 

 compelled to place two little wheels under it 

 to enable the sheep to drag it. These tails are 

 said sometimes to weigh from forty to fifty 

 pounds. Another species have the tail broad 

 and flat, but not very long, covered with wool 

 above, but smooth below, and divided by a 

 furrow^ into two lobes of flesh ; these are also said 

 to weigh above thirty pounds: I should not 

 however, estimate the weight of those which 

 I saw in the menagery at Paris, at more than 

 ten or twelve pounds. In some species a small 

 thin tail projects from the centre of this fleshy 

 excrescence. The composition of this excres- 

 cence is said to be a mixture of flesh with a 

 great proportion of fat, and to be very delicate 

 food; but the animal has little other fat, the 

 tail being in him the repository of that fat 

 which lays about the loins of other sheep. In 

 cold climates the fat of the tail resembles suet; 

 but in warm ones, as at the Cape of Good- 

 Hope, Madagascar, &c. it is so soft, that when 

 melted it will not harden again. The inhabitants 

 mix it with tallow in certain proportions, when 

 it a^>umes the consistency of hog's lard, and is 

 then eaten like butter, or used for culinary pur- 



