RUSSIAN SHEEP. 97 



from storms among the caverns of the coast during the win- 

 ter season. 



RUSSIAN SHEEP. 



From the certainty that a large portion of the waste places 

 of the immense Empire of Russia is destined to be filled 

 with countless hordes of sheep, a brief notice of the progress 

 already made will doubtless be of some interest to the 

 American wool-grower. 



The following account is supplied by Youatt : 



" Far more attention continues to be made to the breeding 

 of sheep than that of cattle, through almost the whole of this 

 immense Empire. All the wandering tribes possess a great 

 number of sheep. Many of the inferior Boors and Cos- 

 sacks in Southern Russia have flocks consisting of many 

 hundreds. 



" The characters of the sheep differ materially in the 

 various districts. Towards the north they are small, short- 

 tailed, and bear a coarse and harsh wool. About the river 

 Don, and still more towards the centre, and on the banks of 

 the Dneiper, and in some districts of the Ukraine, they yield 

 a better wool ; and thence the greater part of the material 

 for the inland cloth manufactories is supplied. In the neigh- 

 borhood of the Baltic a still superior breed is found, and the 

 Dago and Oesel islands, near the Gulf of Finland, are cele- 

 brated for their wool. The half-cloths that are manufac- 

 tured from it have often as fine and close a substance as 

 that which is imported from Great Britain. The finest of 

 the Russian wools are exported from Odessa, on the Black 

 Sea. It is the produce of all the neighboring provinces, but 

 prhicipally of the Crimea. There is no district in the em- 

 pire so fitted by nature for the pasturage of sheep. 



" There are three kinds of sheep in the Crimea and in 

 Taurida. The common breed is white, or black, or grey, 

 with very coarse wool, and a long tail covered with fat. 

 They are kept in exceedingly large flocks. A rich Tartar 

 will frequently possess 50,000 sheep. The grey sheep 

 produce the grey lamb-skins, 30,000 of which are exported 

 every year. Fifty or sixty thousand black lamb-skins, 

 which are also much valued, are exported from the Crimea. 



" The mountain sheep are smaller than those on the 

 plains. Their wool is beautifully fine, and, even before the 

 improvement which many of the flocks have undergone, 



9 



