DIFFUSION OF DOMESTICATED SHEEP 247 



in Paraguay ; this being no doubt due to the 

 elevation of the country and the consequently drier 

 and more salubrious climate. It is, however, very 

 remarkable that the majority of the rams are three 

 or four horned, while others carry five or even six 

 horns, especially when it is borne in mind that 

 merinos show no tendency to such a redundancy in 

 other parts of the world. Like the cattle of the 

 country, sheep propagate at a great rate in Peru ; 

 even the smaller farmers never possess less than 

 about 60 to 100 head, while the great land-owners, or 

 estancieros, possess flocks which may number so many 

 as 80,000 head. Sheep are most numerous in the 

 Puna district, where the climate is cooler than on 

 the coast ; but in a large area of the mountains the 

 soil is devoted to agriculture, on which account the 

 flocks are largely restricted to the Puna plateau. 

 Sometime prior to 1 860 efforts were made to improve 

 the Peruvian breed by the importation of high-class 

 Spanish merinos ; and there is no doubt that with 

 proper management the industry might be highly 

 remunerative. 



The foregoing remarks are applicable almost 

 word for word to the sheep of Chile, which are from 

 a merino stock imported by Cardinal Ximenes. As 

 in Peru, the rams show a marked tendency to the 

 development of extra horns,^ the number of these 



' See Darwin, Animals and Plants under Domestication, 2nd ed., 

 vol. i. p. 99. 



