644 [Assemble 



June 1st, 1847. 

 Judge Van Wyck in the Chair. I 



Mr. Meigs, read the following articles prepared by him. 



SHEEP. 



The earliest records of Spain mention the fact that their wool was- 

 particularly fine. Strabo, who wrote in the first part of the first 

 century of the Christian era, mentions wool as a principal article of 

 commerce from Spain. Speaking of Trudetania, now part ot Portu- 

 gal, he says: the most excellent wool is that of the sheep from 

 Caraxi, a ram of which breed has been sold in Rome for a talent, 

 equal to $1,080 of our modern money. 



The Western Iberians (Portugal and Spain) have made the most 

 excellent cloths from their sheep, not however equal to the Caraxi. 



The Caraxi were a people of Asia. Thus we see the high esti- 

 mation held in Rome of fine wool, when so large a sum was given 

 to improve the breed. 



When the Moors overran Spain in the eighth century, the 

 natives retired to the mountains and kept flocks of sheep. The 

 Monarchs became shepherds. This being a royal flock, it was called 

 the precious jewel of the crown. A royal council was formed, styled 

 " The Council of the Grand Royal Fock, and the laws relative to 

 Spanish sheep, have been digested into a code, published in a large 

 foho volume, by the title of ' The Laws of the Royal Flock.' " 



ALPACAS, ETC. 



Ulloa observes, that in the district of Liper, in Peru, the air is 

 very cold, and there are nourished great herds of Vicunas, Alpacas, 

 or Tarugas, and Lamas, animals common enough on the high moun- 

 tains where the cold is continual. 



Some parts of Persia, and the province of Cashmere, in the northern 

 parts of Hindoostan, furnish wool of perhaps the finest kind in the 

 world. The sheep are kept on the bleak mountains of Armenia the 

 greatest part of the year, and the tops of the mountains are continu- 

 ally covered with snow. 



Bernice says that this region is frozen half the year, that it is a 

 miserable country, but that the trade is chiefly in wool, finer thaa 



