Essay on Sheep. 125 



sickly or in full health, or if the weather Is 

 more or less cold when the young wool pro- 

 ti'udes through the skin: if in that state it is 

 compressed, it will be fine; if it finds an easy 

 passage, it will be coarse; and as the wool of 

 common sheep is an annual production, it may 

 frequently vary. But the fleece which never 

 falls off must be subject to very few changes; it 

 may be longer or shorter, but the root being the 

 same, it will probably be liable to no changes 

 but such as arise from the greater or less com- 

 pression of the skin through which it passes. 

 Cold then will have a tendency to render the 

 wool fine; heat and moisture to make it coarse. 

 The marten, the grey-squirrel, the common fox, 

 &c. have much finer fur in Siberia and Hudson's 

 Bay, than they have in Virginia or Pennsylvania, 

 and yet they are exactly the same animal. It 

 is true, the men of very high latitudes have 

 similar hair to those near the line, and probably 

 this is owing to the same cause : in summer they 

 are exposed to the continued rays of the sun, 

 without the intervention of night, which must 

 greatly relax them: their winter is a continued 

 night, in which the children at least are con- 

 fined to a smoaky hut; their diet is slender and 

 relaxing ; and the general habit of covering their 

 heads and greasing tlieir bodies must necessarily 



