

DIVISION OF PROPERTY. 



241 



with fine wool, and this continues until they are 

 one year and a half or two years old ; but after 

 this age, it begins to drop, and is replaced by a 

 species of hair. Although the wool should re- 

 main longer in some instances, it appeared to 

 me that it was coarse and short. * A wound 

 upon the body of this animal is more difficult to 

 heal than upon that of any other, and the flesh 

 of it is of all others the most rapid in its ad- 

 vances to putrefaction. 



The division of property in the Sertam is very 

 undeterminate, and this may be imagined, when 

 I say, that the common mode of defining the 



species of animal in England, still I think that the mutton of 

 Brazil is more unequal to the mutton of England, than is the 

 case respecting the beef of the two countries. 



* Lieutenant-Colonel Joam da Silva Feijo, in a pamphlet 

 published at Rio de Janeiro, in 1811, on the sheep of the 

 province of Seara, says, " That the sheep of that part of 

 the country bear wool which has all the marks of being of a 

 superior quality ; that it is in general soft, shining, well curled, 

 of a good length, and strong." He again says, " That 

 the Governor," the same of whom I have spoken, " sent a 

 small quantity of it to England, which was much admired 

 and esteemed." I did not certainly remark particularly the 

 sheep at Seara, and his opinion must of course be taken in 

 preference to mine, as this gentleman is the naturalist of the 

 same province ; however, I bought several as food, and their 

 skins were invariably covered in the manner which I have 

 above described. When I resided at Jaguaribe and Itama- 

 raca, I possessed a considerable number of sheep, and of these 

 I can speak positively. 



VOL. I. R 



