50 HISTORY OF SHEEP. 



cliffs and precipices, where it is perilous, if not impossible 

 for the hunter to follow. The dimensions of a male of this 

 species is, from the nose to the base of the tail, five feet ; 

 length of the tail, four inches ; girth of the body, four feet ; 

 height, three feet eight inches ; the horn, three feet six inches 

 long ; one foot three inches in circumference at the base." 



In that valuable work entitled the " Animal Kingdom," 

 Major Hamilton Smith remarks : — " If the American spe- 

 cies be the same as the Asiatic, which appears very proba- 

 ble, it can have reached the New World only over the ice 

 by Behring's Straits ; and the passage may be conjectured 

 as comparatively of a recent date, since the Argali has not 

 spread eastward beyond the Rocky Mountains, nor to the 

 south farther than California." 



THE MOUFLON OR MUSMON. 



Buffon and Wilson have considered this sheep as identi- 

 cal with the Argali ; others regard it as a variety only. It 

 inhabits the mountains of Corsica and Sardinia, and has 

 been found in some of the islands of the Grecian Archipel- 

 ago. It is asserted by Pliny as having abounded, at an 

 early period, in Spain. 



Wilson, the distinguished naturalist, describes it thus : — 

 •' It is usually about two and a half feet in height, and three 

 feet and a half from the nose to the commencement of the 

 tail. The horns never exceed two feet in length ; they are 

 curved backwards, and the points turn inwards ; the roots 

 of the horns are very thick and wrinkled ; the ears are of a 

 middle size, straight and pointed ; the neck is thick ; the 

 body round ; the limbs muscular ; and the tail short. The 

 color is generally of a dull, or brownish-grey, with some 

 white on the fore part of the face and on the legs ; a tuft of 

 long hair beneath the throat ; a dark streak along the back ; 

 and the upper part of the face black, with black streaks 

 along the cheeks. The forehead of this sheep is particu- 

 larly arched. The females are generally without horns, 

 and where they do appear, they are considerably less than 

 those of the male." 



The Musmons, like the Argali, love to roam on the high- 

 est mountain-tops, where they are seen congregated in herds 

 of from fifty to an hundred. It is covered by a fine hair of 

 no great length, having beneath it a thick, grey-colored wool, 



