Essay on Sheep. I21 



Spain, as I have said, contains a great number 

 of long-woollcd sheep, hi every respect differ- 

 ent from the Merino: the climate has had no 

 effect in mehorating their fleeces; the migration 

 does not contribute to it. Tliey have in various 

 parts of Spain, and particularly in Estramadura, 

 Merinoes that never migrate, and whose wool 

 is not inferior to that of the migrating sheep; 

 and they have both in France and Italy migrat- 

 jng sheep whose wool is not fine. 



When nature forms a change in any species 

 of plants or animals, it does so very slowly, and 

 always in such a way as better to adapt them to 

 the climate in which they are to be naturalized. 

 Thus, some plants which are perennial in warm 

 climates, both root and branch are annuals in 

 colder ones; or while the roots of others survive 

 the winter, their stems are annually renewed. 

 The same plant will form a tree in one climate 

 and a shrub in another. This I have myself 

 witnessed in the fig, which I have seen of the 

 size of a bearing apple-tree, while a little more 

 north it was a shrub of very moderate size. If 

 then the fur of quadrupeds and the hair of man 

 are finer in high than in low latitudes, why, if 

 the climate effects any change in the Meri- 

 noes, should it not be for the better? My own 

 experience has not been so great as to permit 



