FAT-RUMPED SHEEP 197 



is confirmed by the fact that when these sheep are 

 kept in stalls and supplied with fresh water, their 

 fat diminishes rapidly. In a wether in good condi- 

 tion, of which the total weight will be about 200 lbs., 

 the fatty cushions on the rump will weigh from 30 

 to 40 lbs. In Siberia the development of fat is also 

 less than in other parts of the habitat of the breed. 

 The Kirghiz keep a comparatively small number of 

 rams with the flocks — from 40 to 50 with every 

 thousand ewes. They are firm believers in 

 heredity, and assert that if a well-horned ewe be 

 put to a ram with big horns, the lamb, if a male, will 

 probably be four-horned. 



These sheep are chiefly valued for the sake of 

 their flesh and fat, despite the fact that the mutton 

 is far inferior in quality to that of even second-class 

 European breeds. The fat, of which that on the 

 buttocks is semi-fluid and butter-like, constitutes the 

 great bulk of Russian tallow. 



In former days the Hottentots of Cape Colony 

 kept a breed of fat-rumped sheep believed to have 

 been derived from the Tatarian stock, which it is 

 suggested may have been imported by way of Persia 

 about the commencement of the seventeenth century. 

 Our only information on the subject is derived from 

 the traveller, J. R. Forster,^ who met with sheep 

 in South Africa in which the tail was replaced by 



' See Observations made during a Voyage round the World, &'c., 

 London, 1778. 



