l64 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



On the contrary, in Australia and many other 

 warm countries the flocks flourish abundantly. 

 Certain naturalists say that the so-called musk ox 

 is really a sheep ; but it is plain that, if so, that 

 curious beast is a very distant relative of the 

 familiar varieties. Neither the musk ox nor any 

 other arctic animal would long survive a removal 

 to a sub-tropical region. 



If we study the various kinds of wild sheep all 

 the world over, we at once find an answer to the 

 question as to the origin of the wool. Without 

 exception they are dwellers upon high mountains. 

 Some live almost among perpetual snow. The 

 bighorn inhabits the Rockies, the moufflon the 

 mountains of Corsica and Sardinia, the Barbary 

 sheep the high regions of Morocco and other 

 parts of Northern Africa, while the gigantic Ovis 

 poll, the argali, and the burrhel are at home amid 

 the towering ranges of Siberia and Thibet. On 

 the grassy slopes and terraces they find susten- 

 ance, and among the giddy precipices above they 

 take refuge when danger threatens them. They 

 took to the hills in the first place, like the wild 

 asses, because the fierce Carnivora of the low- 

 lands were too many for them. Their cousins, 

 the antelopes and deer, were swift enough to hold 



