MERINO SHEEP 145 



importance. The character of the animals and 

 the quality of their fleeces remained almost un- 

 changed until the century was a half -score years 

 old, when the Merinos had become established 

 here, and the effect of their cross with the natives 

 began to be manifest. 



Perhaps mention should be made here of the 

 Smith's Island sheep, of unknown origin, but 

 peculiar to the island from which they took their 

 name, which lies off the coast of Virginia, and be- 

 longed, about 1810, to Mr. Custis, Washington's 

 stepson, who wrote a pamphlet concerning them, 

 in which he says : "Then* wool is a great deal longer 

 than the Spanish, in quality vastly superior; the 

 size and figure of the animal admit of no com- 

 parison, being highly in favor of the Smith's 

 Island." 



Livingston does not endorse these claims, but 

 says of the wool: "It is soft, white, and silky, but 

 neither so fine nor so soft as the Merino wool." If 

 this breed is not extinct, it never gained much 

 renown, nor noticeably spread beyond its island 

 borders. I think Randall does not mention it in 

 his "Practical Shepherd." There were also the 

 Otter sheep, said to have originated on some island 

 on our eastern coast, and whose distinguishing 

 peculiarity was such extreme shortness of legs that 

 Livingston says they could not run or jump, and 

 they even walked with some difficulty. And there 



