228 



UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



use bones either of birds or fishes; yet with these simple in- 

 struments they sew very strongly and well. The outer dress 

 of the men resembles a short greatcoat, with a hood that can 

 be pulled over the head if necessary, and which serves as a 

 substitute for a hat or cap. Their under-garments or shirts are 

 made of bird-skins with the feathers inwards ; or of skins with 

 the hair inside; sometimes, however, they wear in addition 

 another shirt made of seal's entrails. Their breeches are either 

 of seal-skin or reindeer-skin, and their stockings of skins from 

 very young animals. The boots are of smooth black dressed 

 seal's leather, and sometimes when at sea they wear a great 

 overcoat of the same material. The dress of the women does 



not differ much from that of the 

 men." 



For temperate climates skins 

 are far from being a convenient 

 form of clothing, and among the 

 prehistoric races of Europe were 

 gradually replaced by woven fab- 

 rics. Coarse materials of the sort 

 made from flax or straw fibres, 

 have been discovered in connec- 

 tion with some of the Swiss lake- 

 dwellings referred to the Stone Age, at a time when tame sheep 

 were few in number. But when this animal became an important 

 domesticated form the possibility of replacing flax, &c., by wool 

 came to be realized. And among the remains of the Bronze Age 

 in Jutland various woollen garments have been found. 



The coat of a Mammal typically consists of outer hair, more 

 or less harsh in texture, and soft under-fur, the two being present 

 in different proportions in different cases. The "wool " of Sheep 

 is a specialized kind of under-fur, the individual hairs of which 

 are wavy or crimped, and covered with well-marked overlapping 

 scales, that promote felting together (fig. 1 1 64). Considerable 

 variations exist as to length, fineness, &c., and the fleeces of 

 certain existing breeds are noted for their valuable qualities. 

 In South-west Asia there is a remarkable variety of the domestic 

 form, known as the Flat -Tailed Sheep, in which the tail is 

 enormously large and fat, weighing as much as 40 or 50 Ibs. 

 A miniature sledge or cart is often attached to animals of the kind, 



Fibres of Wool as seen under 

 Microscope 



Fig. 1164 



