28 THE SHEEP. 



mixed with that of the Sheep of various countries. Sheep 

 and Goats, indeed, when left free to select their own mates, 

 do not breed together, but the union is readily produced 

 when the males of one species only are present at the rutting 

 season ; and it has been long known to shepherds, though 

 questioned by naturalists, that the resulting progeny is fruit- 

 ful. Breeds of this mixed race are numerous in the north 

 of Europe, and can scarcely have failed to take place in every 

 country where Sheep and Goats are herded together. 



We may believe, then, that the Domesticated Sheep, the 

 Ovis ARIES of naturalists, is a factitious species, and not one 

 which has been called forth in the natural state. A species 

 of this kind, however, having been formed, by whatever mix- 

 tures of blood, the members of it must have been subject, like 

 every other family mixed or pure, to vary under the influence 

 of external agencies ; and thus, independently of the differ- 

 ences produced by differences of origin, there are those which 

 have been produced by climate, food, and domestication, giv- 

 ing rise to those great varieties which, even under the nar- 

 rowest geographical limits, present themselves. 



From whatever sources derived, these valuable animals, 

 we know, have been subjected to servitude from the earliest 

 times. The most ancient written records of the Southern 

 Asiatics refer to the Domesticated Sheep ; and he is figured 

 on the oldest monuments of the past, which time has left us, 

 in Western Asia. On the sculptured remains of Egypt, 

 the Sheep continually appears, and of a form which we can 

 identify with that of the same animal still existing. The 

 Sacred Writings record its existence along with the first 

 known inhabitants of the earth ; and the flocks and herds of 

 the wandering Shepherds of the East, are described with a 

 minuteness, which enables us to compare the pursuits of the 

 most ancient people with those of the inhabitants of the same 

 countries at the present hour. Scarcely any thing seems to 

 have changed in the habits of men in those countries of pas- 



