126 Essay on Sheep. 



tend to unbrace the skin and give an easy pas* 

 sage to the hair. We find an exact analogy be- 

 tween the effect of climate upon the covering 

 of sheep and that of other quadrupeds. The 

 sheep under the line are hairy; as you go north 

 they become woolly, and farther north the 

 wool is finest; the best wool in Germany is that 

 of Saxony. The moist climate of England and 

 Ireland produces long and coarse wool. It is 

 true that fine wool is also found in Persia, and 

 in Cassimere and Thibet, but this is only in the 

 very cold and mountainous parts of those coun^ 

 tries. The sheep of Siberia are coarse-haired, 

 but they have below that hair a coat of extremely 

 fine wool; they are the Mouflon, or Argali, al- 

 most in their native state, in which man has taken 

 little pains to cultivate the wool at the expense 

 of the hair, but permitted them to grow toge- 

 ther; and indeed in that state it is best adapted 

 to the wants of the inhabitants, who know not the 

 use of the loom, but wear the skin of the sheep, 

 in which case the hair is as useful as the wool; 

 for it protects them, as it did its original owner, 

 against rain and snow, which would penetrate 

 the wool were it not covered by a surtout of 

 hair: it is then probable that the Merino sheep 

 docs not owe its peculiar excellence to the cli- 

 mate of Spain, or to the mode oi treatment. 



