2U2 CASSELL'S POPULAR NATU11AL HISTOBY. 



THE FAT-TAILED SHEEP.* 



I\ Egypt and Syria there is a strange variety of sheep, with a long tail, which sometimes trails on the 

 ground, and has even been seen, as represented in the engraving, sustained by a little cart. In the 

 Egyptian animals the tail is broad throughout, but in the Syrian it narrows to a point. The ordinary 

 weight of the tail is fifteen pounds, but, in some of the larger kinds, well fattened, the tail will weigh 

 seventy, eighty, or even a hundred and fifty pounds. This caudal deposit of fat is oleaginous, being of 

 a consistence between fat and marrow, and is often used in the place of butter. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP.f 



THESE aninlals inhabit the Rocky Mountain range of North America, from whence they derive their 

 name. They also frequent the elevated and craggy ridges with which the country between the great 

 mountain range and the Pacific is intersected ; but they do not appear to have advanced further to the 

 eastward than the declivity of the Rocky Mountains ; nor are the}' found in any of the hilly tracts 

 nearer to Hudson's T'av. 



. . - 



THE I'AT-TAIT.EI) SIIKKP. 



They collect in flocks, consisting of from three to thirty. In the retired parts of the mountains, 

 where the hunters have seldom penetrated, there is no difficulty in approaching them, exhibiting, as 

 they do, the simplicity of character so remarkable in the domestic species. JJut, where they have often 

 been fired at, they are exceedingly wild, alarm their companions on the approach of danger by a hissing 

 noise, and scale the rocks with an agility and a speed which baffle pursuit. Their favourite feeding- 

 plaees are grassy knolls, skirted by craggy rocks, to which they can retreat when followed by dogs or 

 wolves. They are accustomed to pay daily visits to certain caves in the slaty roeks that arc encrusted 

 with a saline efflorescence, of which they arc fond. The horns sometimes grow to an enormous size. 

 The Hesh of this si p is s;iid to be quite delicious when it is in season. 



DOMESTIC SHEEP. 



TIIK most ancient records of our race, both sacred and pMane, tell us of the sheep as already all 

 domesticated for the food and clothing of man; and it is a significant fact, that both" the 



* Ovis \Tie>. V.r. Macrocercu-. f Ovis Montana. 



