THE SHEEP AND GOATS 201 
We may first say a word or two as to foreign breeds of sheep, especially those of the East. 
Some of these resemble the wild breeds in having smooth coats and almost no wool. The SOMALI 
SHEEP, for instance, yield no wool useful for felting or spinning. They have drooping ears and 
black heads. Some of the finest natural wool is developed by a white sheep in Tibet. The fur 
is usually sold as Tibetan lamb. The wool is exactly like white floss-silk. When cured by 
the Chinese, the leather is like white kid, with this flossy wool attached. 
In India and Persia the sheep is sometimes used as a beast of burden. Mr. Lockwood 
Kipling, in his “Beast and Man in India,” says: “ Borax, asafcetida, and other commodities 
are brought into India on the backs of sheep in bags. The flocks are driven in large numbers 
from Tibet into British territory. One of the sensations of journeying in the hills of the 
‘interior,’ as the farther recesses of the mountains are called by Anglo-Indians, is to come 
suddenly on such a drove, as it winds, with the multitudinous click of little feet, round the 
Z / . 
Photo by HW, Reid] (Wishaw, N.B. 
MERINO RAMS 
The best wool-producing sheep. Imported from Spain to Australia 
shoulder of some Himalayan spur. The coarse hair bags scrape the cliffside from which the 
narrow path is built out or hollowed, and allow but scant room for your pony, startled by the 
hurry and the quick-breathing rush of the creatures as they crowd and scuffle past. Only 
the picturesque shepherds return from these journeys. The carriers of the caravan (2. e. the 
sheep), feeding as they go, gather flesh in spite of their burdens, and provide most excellent 
mutton. . . . In the towns of the plains rams are kept as fighting animals. A Mohammedan 
swell going out for a stroll with his fighting-ram makes a picture of foppery not easily 
surpassed by the sporting ‘fancy’ of the West. The ram is neatly clipped, with a judicious 
reservation of the salient tufts, tipped with saffron and mauve dye, and besides a large collar 
of blue beads it wears a necklace of hawk-bells.” 
The FAT-TAILED SHEEP of Persia and Tartary exhibits a curious provision of nature. When 
food is plentiful, a quantity of fat accumulates on the tail and croup. As the pasture dries up 
and the animal finds little food, this store of fat is gradually absorbed. Another fat-tailed 
sheep is found from Syria and Egypt to the Cape. This has a long tail reaching to the 
