

HISTORY. 35 



and ultimately disappearing. It has been conjectured that 

 the character itself arises from the Sheep feeding on the bit- 

 ter and saline plants found in these countries ; and it is said, 

 that when they are removed from the places in which these 

 plants grow, the fatty excrescence becomes less. It may 

 justly be assumed, indeed, that this character is the result of 

 peculiarities of food, although we cannot determine physiolo- 

 gically in what manner the effect is produced. The Sheep 

 in which this singular character appears have been regarded 

 as a natural variety, and termed Steatopyga. 



The races of Sheep, again, having round tails covered with 

 wool, are widely diffused over the Asiatic Continent. From 

 this group of breeds the finest wool is produced, though, in 

 the greater number of them, the wool is extremely coarse, 

 and largely mixed with hairs. Some of them are of a large 

 size, as in Thibet, where they are employed for carrying bur- 

 dens. The Sheep of the Tartars may be referred in part to 

 this group, and in part to the broad-tailed. The Tartar Sheep 

 are remarkably strong and hardy, but, for the most part, of 

 bad farmland covered with coarse wool. But when we speak 

 of Tartary, or rather Tahtary, it is to be remembered that 

 we use a vague term for a region which comprehends a great 

 part of all Asia, and includes tribes and nations entirely 

 distinct from one another in speech, customs, and country. 

 The inhabitants, however, generally agree in this, that they 

 are rude shepherds, subsisting on the produce of their flocks 

 and herds, with which they migrate from place to place ; 

 but their domesticated animals differ greatly with place, so 

 that the Sheep of the Turcomans and other western Asiatics 

 are distinct from those of the Kalmuks, Mantchoories, and 

 others. Towards the Eastern Ocean, comprehending the 

 fertile plains of China Proper, the Sheep, like the Horses of 

 the same country, become of small size ; and the same re- 

 mark applies to those which are found in the luxuriant Islands 

 of the Eastern Archipelago. Hindostan contains races more 

 diversified in size, form, and the character of the wool, than 



