iii The high Estimation of Broad-tailed Sheep. 



',,1. ' ■ ■■ ■ ■ ... 



tors) those most valuable animals ; a small number whereof 

 had been, here, in the hands oi a very few persons. It would 

 now be as difficult as unnecessary, to enumerate the indivi- 

 duals who possess them. Instead of its being a rarity for 

 me to see fine sheep of this breed, they have already become 

 familiar : and that by an accumulation so rapid, as to appear 

 a kind of magical delusion. Accessions must continue to ar- 

 rive ; for speculation is alive and active* Their depressed 

 owners must part with precarious property ; and the patriots 

 of Spain willingly assist in thinnmg their country, of these 

 subjects of monopolies, which have long been its scourge. — 

 The laws and regulations in Spain^ on the subject of sheep ^ 

 have ever been oppressive on the people, and injurious to the 

 agriculture of the country. The flocks and the system will dis- 

 solve together. Whatever may be the final fate of that country, it 

 will be, for a long time, too much disturbed, to suffer the flocks, 

 or the system, to remain on their former establishments. 



Regaled as I have been by my excursion among the meri- 

 nos^ I return, however, not only with undiminished, but with 

 increased pleasure, to my Tunisians ; and the old author who 

 celebrates their progenitors. He cites Herodotus b. 3. c. 115. 

 Aristotle's account of Syria^ Hist : b. 8. c. 28. Diodorus b. 2. 

 Pliny b, 8. c. 48 ; and other antient authors (several whereof 

 I have examined) as proofs of the description and good quali- 

 ties of this race of sheep, in times the most remote. We, in 

 our day, have the opportunity o: testing, hy easy and agreeable 

 experiment^ the verity of these old authors. We may com- 

 pare them, too, with the more humble, but equally just, 

 proofs from the practical witnesses I have produced. I took 

 Scheuchzer'^s advice. He tells us " that to explain such texts, 

 and others like them, we must not only enter the store- 

 houses of grammatical and other learning, but we must go 

 into the slaughter-houses oi the butchers ; — " intra?ida lani- 

 onum laboratoria^'' as well as into more elevated anatomical 

 theatres. 



