58 HISTORY OF SHEEP. 



tending downwards and covering the larynx, is a third col- 

 lection of soft fatty matter." This is certainly a very curious 

 variety of sheep, and is found in no other part of the world. 



GUINEA SHEEP. 



There are two kinds of sheep on the slave coast. One 

 is small, their forms resembling, in some particulars, the Eu- 

 ropean sheep. Says a Dutch traveller, — " They have no 

 wool, but the want is supplied with hair, so that here the 

 world seems inverted, for the sheep are hairy and the 

 men are woolly. The hair is like that of the goat, with a 

 sort of mane like a lion on the neck, and so on the rump, 

 and a bunch at the end of the tail." 



The most numerous breed in Guinea is of a different 

 character. The male is horned, the horns generally form- 

 ing a semicircle, with the points forward ; the females are 

 hornless ; the ears are pendulous, and black spots are distrib- 

 uted on the sides of the head and neck, as well as body."* 

 A writer remarks, " The sheep in Guinea have so little re- 

 semblance, in general, to those in Europe, that a stranger, 

 unless he heard them bleat, could hardly tell what animals 

 they were, being covered with white and brown hairs like 

 a dog." 



MOROCCO SHEEP. 



Morocco is situated in the northern latitudes of Africa. 

 Its sheep are far superior to any other breeds of that region, 

 and the only ones worth cultivating. The form and fleece 

 were highly appreciated in the days of Columella, as was 

 proved by his selection of a ram to improve his Spanish 

 ewes, at the time of his residence near Cadiz. Chancellor 

 Livingston, in his " Essay on Sheep," says — " I have in my 

 flock a ewe that is descended from a Barbary ram. Her 

 fleece is long, straight, and fine." She was tupped by one 

 of his Merino rams, and the produce from the cross exhibited 

 a wool equal to seven-eighths Merino ! 



* Animal Kingdom. 



