HISTORY, 33 



cover. It is often affected by domestication and artificial 

 treatment. The difference in the character of wool renders 

 it more or less valuable, and more or less suited to different 

 manufactures. Thus, the long thick wool of the Sheep of the 

 plains of England is suited to the manufacture of flannels ; 

 that of the South Down, Ry eland, and Merino breeds, to the 

 fabrication of cloths ; that of the Blackfaced Heath Sheep of 

 Scotland, to the making of carpets and coarser stuffs. The 

 colour of the wool of Sheep is yet less dependent upon any 

 known causes than its texture, length, or fineness. Some- 

 times it is black, sometimes it is gray, sometimes it is brown, 

 and in other cases it is white, or partly black and partly 

 white. We know no law which determines these colours. 

 There is reason to believe that the colour of the fleece in the 

 earlier Sheep tended to the darker colours rather than to the 

 lighter, as it yet does in Sheep that are left long in their 

 natural state. But the white colour came to be more valued, 

 as being more agreeable to the eye, but chiefly because white 

 wool is better fitted to receive those bright and beautiful 

 colours which we are enabled to communicate by the dyeing 

 process. But the desire to obtain white wool being formed, 

 it was easy to procure white Sheep, by using males and 

 females for breeding which were possessed of that colour. 



With respect to the races of Sheep which have been domes- 

 ticated in different countries, a diversity so great is presented 

 in the form and size of the animals, nature of the fleece, and 

 other characters, that nothing beyond the most general classi- 

 fication can be made when we refer to Sheep extended over 

 many and distant countries. 



Looking to Asia, which may be considered as the cradle of 

 the principal domesticated races, it may be said that there 

 are two groups of cultivated Sheep, each, however, compre- 

 hending innumerable breeds ; first, those with flat tails 

 naked underneath ; and, secondly, those with long round 

 tails covered with wool. The Flat- tailed races have a won- 

 derfully wide range, extending from Caubul northwards to 



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