SPANISH SHEEP, MERINOS, ETC. 60 



with a dirty crust, often full of crocks. The legs are rather 

 long, yet small in the bone ; the breast and the back are 

 narrow, and the sides somewhat flat ; the shoulders and 

 bosoms are heavy, and too much of their weight is carried 

 on the coarser parts. The horns of the male are compara- 

 tively large, curved, and with more or less of the spiral form ; 

 the head is large, but the forehead rather low. A few of 

 the females are horned, but generally speaking they are 

 without horns. Both male and female have a peculiar 

 coarse and unsightly growth of hair on the forehead and 

 cheeks, which the careful sheep-master cuts away before 

 the shearing time : the other part of the face has a pleasing 

 and characteristic velvet appearance. Under the throat 

 there is a singular looseness of skin, which gives them a 

 remarkable appearance of throatiness, or hollowness in the 

 neck.* The pile, when pressed upon, is hard and unyield- 

 ing ; it is so from the thickness with which it grows on the 

 pelt, and the abundance of yolk, detaining all the dirt and 

 gravel which falls upon it ; but when examined, the fibre 

 exceeds in fineness, and in the number of serrations and 

 curves, that which any other sheep in the world produces. 

 The average weight of the fleece (unwashed) in Spain is 

 eight pounds from the ram, and five from the ewe. The 

 staple differs in length in different provinces. When fatted, 

 these sheep will weigh from 12 to 16 pounds per quarter. 



" The excellency of the Merinos consists in the unexampled 

 fineness and felting property of their wool, and in the weight 

 of it yielded by each individual sheep : the closeness of that 

 wool, and the luxuriance of the yolk, which enables them 

 to support extremes of cold and wet as well as any other 

 breed ; the easiness with which they adapt themselves to 

 every change of climate, and yet thrive and retain, with 

 common care, their fineness of wool : an appetite which 

 renders them apparently satisfied with the coarsest food ; 

 a quietness and patience into whatever pasture they are 

 turned, and a gentleness and tractableness not excelled by 

 any other breed. 



* Lord Somerville has some obsen^ations on this point : — " The second 

 property to be noted in this sheep is a tendency to throatiness, a pen- 

 dulous skin under the tliroat, wliich is generally deemed a bad property 

 in this countr)', and the very reverse in 8pain, where it is much esteemed, 

 because it is supposed to denote a tendency both to wool and a heavy 

 fleece." — Somerville on Sheejj. 



