46 THE DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS 



undercoat of fine wool is invariably shorter tha'n even the 

 close outer crop of coarser hair, and the general colour varies 

 from foxey-red to fawn. Since it is clearly an advantage for 

 clothing that the softness and heat-retaining properties of 

 the fleece should be increased, early selection tended to the 

 lengthening of the woolly undercoat; so that even in the 

 primitive domesticated breed represented by the Soay sheep, 

 the natural proportions are reversed, and while the hair is 

 rather under 2 inches long, the wool reaches a length of 

 2 J inches. Nevertheless Soay fleeces average under a pound 

 in weight, and at the present day are considered scarcely 

 worth shearing. 



Excavations in early human sites of occupation, though 

 they yield evidence of the presence of sheep, give no 

 indication of the nature of their coat, so that we have to 

 content ourselves with a few quotations from historical 

 records. Already in the twelfth century, a great wool in- 

 dustry had been developed in Scotland, for in the reign of 

 David I, woollen cloth was manufactured on a large scale 

 in many of the villages, and the enumeration among the 

 burgher classes, of weavers, "litcters" or dyers, and pullers 

 indicates manufacture of some skill and delicacy. In several 

 directions the improvement, of the fleece had progressed, in 

 an increase in the length of the wool, in its fineness, and in 

 its colour. Boece in the sixteenth century writes enthusiastic- 

 ally about the quality of the Scottish product : 



Quhat may be said of our wol? quhilk is sa quhit [white] and smal [fine], 

 that the samin is desirit be all peple, and coft [bought] with gret price, 

 speciallie with merchandis quhair it is best knawin [known]. Of this wol is 

 maid the fine skarlettis with mony uthir granit and deligat [grand and 

 delicate] clothis. (Bellenden's Translation.) 



And in the following century, William Lithgow, who travelled 

 over the southern parts of Scotland in 1628, says of Galloway 

 wool that it was better than any he had seen in Spain. 

 " Nay," he writes, " the Calabrian silk had never a better 

 lustre or a softer gripe than I have touched in Galloway on 

 the sheep's back." Truly in these days, it was "Galloway 

 for woo'." It need hardly be said, however, that all wool was 

 not of this high standard, witness the estimate of Aberdeen- 

 shire wool by Schir Robert Egew, Chaiplan to My Lord 

 Sinclair, who in his account of his stewardship in 1511 writes: 



