NATURAL HISTORY 9 



The illustration of the Musmon, given here, will go to 

 show that this belief is well founded and that all our modern 

 breeds have descended from this first parent, which still 

 exists in the islands of Crete and Cyprus, and the mountains 

 of Greece, as well as in Corsica and Sardinia. It formerly 

 abounded in Spain, and it is from these very localities that 

 the ancient inhabitants of Home procured their choicest 

 fleeces. 



It is also on record by some of the ancient Roman writers, 

 and by that ancient naturalist Pliny, that the Musmon was 

 used to cross on the ancient sheep, bred by the Romans for 

 the sake of its fleece, and that the produce of the cross was 

 fertile, But however it may have boon, this we know on 



ARGALI OF ASIA. 



the authority of the most ancient records, tnat of the history 

 of mankind given in the Scriptures, viz: that while the first 

 man, or we may think the first distinct race of men, were 

 cultivators of the ground, the second were keepers of sheep. 

 In fact the sheep unquestionably was the first domesticated 

 animal, and not so much for its flesh, although we soon find 

 that this was a choice article of food, but for its fleece. In 

 fact we find in the most ancient remains of the earliest 

 human races, that wool was used for clothing, first by the 

 use of .the skins of the sheep, and in time that it was spun 

 and woven into cloth. And during all the earliest history of 

 mankind to the present, we find that the sheep has been 

 accounted, at least, an equal part of the wealth of mankind 

 with all other animals or possessions. Moreover we are 

 forced to conclude, as the result of a study of history, that 

 the ancient shepherds who were wanderers, alternately in- 



