PART I-THE SHEEP INDUSTRY IN STATES EAST OF THE 



MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



By Ezra A. Carman. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE WILD SHEEP OF AMERICA, AND EARLIEST INTRODUCTION OF 

 DOMESTICATED BREEDS. 



The European discoverers and conquerors of the Western Hemi- 

 sphere found no domesticated sheep such as they had been accustomed 

 to (at their homes) in Portugal, Spain, Italy, England, and France. 

 To the American aborigines the domesticated sheep of the present day 

 and its progenitor were unknown, but in South America, especially in 

 the regions of the Andes, the Spaniards found four forms of the genus 

 Auchenia, the guanaco and vicuna, known only in the wild state, and 

 the llama and alpaca, known only in the domesticated state, and used 

 by the natives as beasts of burden and for their wool. These four 

 animals appear so different that most naturalists, especially those who 

 have studied them in their native country, maintain that they are spe- 

 cifically distinct, notwithstanding that no one pretends to have seen a 

 wild llama or alpaca. Mr. Ledger, however, who has closely studied 

 these animals, both in Peru and during their exportation to Australia, 

 and who has made many experiments on their propagation, adduces 

 arguments, which seem conclusive, that the Uama is the domesticated 

 descendant of the guanaco, and the alpaca of the vicuna. And now 

 that we know that these animals were systematically bred and selected 

 many centuries ago, there is nothing surprising in the great amount of 

 change which they have undergone.* These animals all furnished 

 wool for clothing, some of it of the finest quality, and the llama was 

 used as a beast of burden. They possess great interest and form an 

 important part in the industrial economy of South America, but can 

 not here be discussed at length, and we pass to the consideration of 

 the wild or native sheep of North America, then to the progressive in- 

 troduction of the domesticated breeds and varieties of the Old "World. 



THE VriLD SHEEP OP NORTH AMERICA. 



The Eocky Mountain sheep, or Big Horn, the Argali of America, in- 

 habits the loftiest mountain chains of North America, and was long ago 

 described by Spanish writers and others as the sheep of California, and 



* "Animals and Plants Under Domestication." Charles Darwin. 



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