CHAPTER XII 



THE DIFFUSION OF DOMESTICATED SHEEP 



In the course of the preceding chapters it has been 

 shown that, with the exception of the bighorns of 

 North America, which were never domesticated, 

 and the arui of North Africa, sheep are natives of 

 the mountainous regions of Southern Europe and 

 Western and Central Asia, extending southwards to 

 the Salt Range of the Punjab and Trans- Indus 

 districts of India. It has likewise been pointed out 

 that they were in all probability domesticated at a 

 very early period both in Europe and in Asia, and 

 that the Asiatic breed was carried westward by the 

 ancestors of the Prehistoric Swiss lake-dwellers. 

 Reference has also been made to the introduction 

 of some of the European breeds into America, 

 Australia, &c. ; this part of the subject may, how- 

 ever, be somewhat more fully elaborated, and in 

 doing this I have drawn largely on the summary 

 given at the conclusion of his articles on the tame 

 breeds by Dr. Fitzinger,^ who derived much of his 

 information from the writings of Prince Maximilian 

 of Neuwied, Renger, Tschudi, Molina, and Roulin. 



» Sitzber Akad. Wiss. IVien, vol. xli. p. 241, i860. 



245 



