98 SHEEP. Chap. III. 



ears, and great Roman noses), lately exhibited in the Zoological 

 Gardens, offer a remarkable instance. 



Sheep are perhaps more readily affected by the direct action 

 of the conditions of life to which they have been exposed than 

 almost any other domestic animal. According to Pallas, and 

 more recently according to Erman, the fat-tailed Kirghisian 

 sheep, when bred for a few generations in Russia, degenerate, 

 and the mass of fat dwindles away, " the scanty and bitter herb- 

 age of the steppes seems so essential to their development." 

 Pallas makes an analogous statement with respect to one of the 

 Crimean breeds. Burnes states that the Karakool breed, which 

 produces a fine, curled, black, and valuable fleece, when re- 

 moved from its own canton near Bokhara to Persia or to other 

 quarters, loses its peculiar fleece. 90 In all such cases, however, 

 it may be that a change of any kind in the conditions of life 

 causes variability and consequent loss of character, and not that 

 certain conditions are necessary for the development of certain 

 characters. 



Great heat, however, seems to act directly on the fleece: 

 several accounts have been published of the change which sheep 

 imported from Europe undergo in the "West Indies. Dr. 

 Nicholson of Antigua informs me that, after the third genera- 

 tion, the wool disappears from the whole body, except over the 

 loins ; and the animal then appears like a goat with a dirty 

 door-mat on its back. A similar change is said to take place 

 on the west coast of Africa. 91 On the other hand, many wool- 

 bearing sheep live on the hot plains of India. Roulin asserts 

 that in the lower and heated valleys of the Cordillera, if the 

 lambs are sheared as soon as the wool has grown to a certain 

 thickness, all goes on afterwards as usual ; but if not sheared, the 

 wool detaches itself in flakes, and short shining hair like that 



90 Erman's ' Travels in Siberia ' (Eng. Sierra Leone Company, as quoted in 

 trans.), vol. i. p. 228. For Pallas on White's ' Gradation of Man,' p. 95. 

 the fat-tailed sheep, I quote from Ander- With respect to the change which 

 son's account of the ' Sheep of Russia,' sheep undergo in the West Indies, see 

 1794, p. 34. With resp^pt to the Cri- also Dr. Davy, in ' Edin. New. Phil, 

 mean sheep, see Pallas' ' Travels ' (Eng. Journal,' Jan. 1852. For the statement 

 trans), vol. ii. p. 454. For the Karakool made by Roulin, see ' Mem. del'Institut 

 sheep, see Burnes' ' Travels in Bokhara,' present, par divers Savans.' torn, vi., 

 vol. iii. p. 151. 1835, p. 347. 



91 See Report of the Directors of the 



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