5* APPENDIX, No. IV. 



fmalleft degree. Here then, accurate experiments could 

 be made, to afcertain the value of any particular breed of 

 Iheep that might be fufpeded to polTefs particular excel- 

 lencies, fo as to enable thofe who ai'e concerned, to fpeak 

 with, certainty of the particular value of each, and the 

 circumftances in which one kind could be kept with 

 greater profit than another ; a kind of knowledge which 

 cannot fo well be attained in any other fituation. 



Thefe iflands are alfo peculiarly well adapted for the 

 rearing of fine-wooUed flieep, on account of the climate 

 they enjoy. There, little variation of heat and cold is 

 experienced at different feafons of the year, in comparifon 

 of continental countries ; and fince it has been proved by 

 repeated experiments, that the thicknefs of every part of 

 each filament of wool is in proportion to the heat the ani- 

 mal was fubje£ted to at the tirne that part of the filament 

 was protruded from the Ikin *, it follows, that if the heat 

 of fummer where the iheep paftures be great, that part 

 of the wool which grows at that feafbn mull be very 

 coarfe ; and if the cold of the winter where the fame 

 Iheep lives be intenfe, that part of the wool which grows 

 during that feafon will indeed be very fine ; but as it 

 conflitutes one part of the fame filament with the coarfe 

 ■wool that grew in fummer, it will be impollible ever to 

 feparate the fine from the coarfe by forting ; fc that very 

 ^ne wool, upon the whole, cannot there be obtained. 



On the weflern iflands of Scotland, however, as the 

 fummers are always cool, the wool that grows during 

 that feafon from the fame breed of fheep is much finer 

 than if it had been kept in a warmer climate j and as the 

 cold during winter is alfo extremely moderate, all the 

 parts of each filament of wool are more nearly of the 

 fame quality, in refpeft to finenefs, than in ulmoft any 



other 



* See Obfervations on tlic means of exciting a fyirit of s^ion^l i^. 

 i^lftry, Letter vi, and poftfcript to <iitto. 



