320 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



of the Mississippi, and throughout the wild mountainous 

 regions, extending through California and Oregon to the 

 Pacific. They are larger, but in other respects resemble 

 the Argali, of which they are probably descendants, as they 

 could cross upon the ice, at Behring's straits, from the notji- 

 eastern cost of Asia. Like the argali, when caught young 

 they are easily tamed ; but we are not aware that they have 

 ever been bred with the domestic sheep. Before the country 

 vvas overrun by the white man, they probably inhabited the 

 region bordering on the Mississippi. Father Hennepin, a 

 French Jesuit, who wrote nearly two hundred years ago, and 

 "who falsely claims to have first discovered that river, often 

 speaks of meeting with goats, in his travels through what is 

 now the territory embraced by Illinois and Wisconsin. The 

 wild, clambering propensities of these animals, occupying 

 the giddy heights, far beyond the reach of the traveller, and 

 the outer coating of hair, (supplied underneath however, with 

 a thick coating of soft wool,) gives to them much of the ap- 

 pearance of that animal. In summer they are generally 

 found single ; but when they descend from their isolated 

 rocky heights in winter, they are gregarious, marching in 

 flocks under the guidance of leaders. The Bearded Sheep of 

 Africa (O. Tragelaphus) inhabit the mountains of Barbary 

 and Egypt. They are covered with a soft, reddish hair, and 

 liave a mane hanging below the neck, and large locks of hair 

 at the ancle. 



THE DOMESTICATED SHEEP (O. Aries) embraces all the 

 varieties of the subjugated species. Whether they have de- 

 scended from any one of the wild races, is a question yet 

 undetermined among naturalists ; but however this may be, 

 many of the varieties apparently differ Jess from their wild 

 namesakes than fro u each other. The Fat-rumped and 

 JBroad-tailed sheep are much more extensively diffused than 

 nny other. They occupy nearly all the south-eastern part of 

 Europe, Western and Central Asia, and Northern Africa. 

 They are supposed to be the varieties which were propogated 

 by the patriarchs and their descendants, tho Jewish race. 

 This is inferred from various passages in the Penteteuch, 

 Exodus, xxix. 2'2 ; Leviticus, iii. 9 ; viii. 25 ; ix. 19, and 

 some others, where " the fat and the rump" are spoken of in 

 connexion with offerings, in which the fat was always an ac- 

 ceptible ingredient. Dr. Boothroyd renders one of -the fore- 

 going passages, " the large fat tail entire, taken clear to the 

 rump." It is certain this variety gives indisputable evidence 



