376 MAMMALIA—SHEEP. 
THE DOMESTIC SHEEP.} 



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Our domestic sheep is only to be met with in Europe, and some of the 
most temperate provinces of Asia and America, and if transported into 
Guinea, loses its wool, and is covered with hair. It increases there but 
little, and its flesh has no longer the same taste; it cannot also subsist in 
cold countries. 
In Iceland, a breed of sheep is to be found, who have many horns, short 
tails, harsh and thick wool, under which, as in almost every animal in 
the north, is a second lining of a softer, finer, and thicker wool. These 
animals are sometimes wintered in stables, but are generally left to 
provide for themselves in the open plains. Caves are their retreats in 
stormy weather; but when they cannot reach such places of shelter, and 
are involved in falls of snow, they place their heads near each other, with 
their muzzles downward towards the ground. In this situation, they will 
remain for several days, and hunger will sometimes compel them to gnaw 
each other’s wool. They yield from two to six quarts of milk a day. Their 
wool is not shorn, but loosens of itself, about the end of May, and is then 
stripped off at once, like a skin. 
In warm climates, some are covered with wool, others with hair, and a 
third kind with hair mixed with wool. The first kind of sheep of those 
countries, is that commonly called the Barbary or Arabian sheep, which 
entirely resembles the tame kind, excepting in the tail, which is very much 
loaded with fat, is often more than a foot broad, and weighs upwards of 
twenty pounds. As for external appearance, this sheep has nothing remark- 
able but the tail, which he carries as if a pillow was fastened to his hinder 
parts. Among this kind of broad tailed sheep, there are some whose tails 
are so long and heavy, that the shepherds are obliged to fasten a small board 
with wheels, in order to support them as they walk along. This tail, which 
is a substance between marrow and fat, is considered a great delicacy. In 
the Levant, these sheep are clothed with a very fine wool. In the hotter 

1 Ovis aries, DEem. 
