28 THE AMEEICAU INEANTADOS. 



occasionally obtained from him which yielded from 4 lbs. ta' 

 4J lbs. of washed wool per head. These sheep long enjoyed 

 great celebrity, and are now represented in the pedigrees of - 

 many excellent pure bred flocks; but as a distinct family, they 

 have mostly been merged in the two next to be described. 



The Infaittadg or Atwood Meeiko. — In 1813, Stephen 

 Atwood, of "Woodbury, Connecticut, bought a ewe of Col. 

 David Humphreys for $120. He bred this ewe and her 

 descendants to rams in his neighborhood which he knew to 

 be of pure Humphreys' blood, until about 1830, after which 

 period he uniformly used rams from his own flock. This is 

 the distinct and positive statement of a man of conceded good 

 character, and has been persisted in from a period long before 

 the asserted facts would have had any eflTect on the reputation 

 of his flock. From 1815 to 1824, and indeed down to a much 

 later period, the pedigrees of "old-fashioned Merinos," as 

 they were then termed, received very little respect or 

 attention ; and, in fact, I am not aware that Mr. Humphreys' 

 importation enjoyed any especial credit over several other of 

 the principal importations, until its reputation was reflected 

 back on it by Mr. Atwood's own flock. Mr. Atwood, 

 moreover, is a purely practical man ; has been specially and 

 almost exclusively devoted to his sheep ; and has always acted 

 as his own shepherd. "We have no right, then, to doubt 

 either his sincerity or his accuracy. 



In 1840, his sheep were not far from the size and form of 

 Mr. Jarvis' — though I think they were inclined to be a little 

 flatter in the ribs, and perhaps a little deeper chested. Their 

 wool was short, fine, even, well crimped, brilliant, generally 

 thick, and very dark colored externally for that day. Some 

 of them (particularly among the rams,) had a black external 

 coat of hardened yolk, which was sticky in warm weather 

 and formed a stiff crust in cold weather. The inside yolk 

 was abundant, and generally colorless. The wool was still 

 shorter on the belly, and as with the Jarvis sheep, did not 

 very well cover the legs and head. Few of them had any 

 below the knees and hooks. Their skins were mellow, loose 

 and of a rich pink color. The rams had a pendulous dew-lap 

 and some of them neck-folds, or "wrinkles," of moderate 

 size. They rarely exhibited them on other parts of the body, 

 and the "broad tail" and deep pendulous flank of the present 

 day, were unknown in both sexes. The ewes generally had 

 dew-laps of greater or lesser width, sometimes dividing into 



