Chap. Ill, CAUSES OF VARIATION. 99 



on a goat is produced ever afterwards. This curious result 

 seems merely to be an exaggerated tendency natural to the 

 Merino breed, for as a great authority, namely, Lord Somer- 

 ville, remarks, "the wool of our Merino sheep after shear-time 

 is hard and coarse to such a degree as to render it almost im- 

 possible to suppose that the same animal could bear wool so 

 opposite in quality, compared to that which has been clipped 

 from it: as the cold weather advances, the fleeces recover 

 their soft quality." As in sheep of all breeds the fleece natu- 

 rally consists of longer and coarser hair covering shorter and 

 softer wool, the change which it often undergoes in hot climates 

 is probably merely a case of unequal development; for even 

 with those sheep which like goats are covered with hair, a 

 small quantity of underlying wool may always be found. 92 In 

 the wild mountain-sheep (Ovis montana) of North America, 

 there is an annual analogous change of coat ; " the wool 

 begins to drop out in early spring, leaving in its place a coat of 

 hair resembling that of the elk, a change of pelage quite dif- 

 ferent in character from the ordinary thickening of the coat or 

 hair, common to all furred animals in winter,— for instance, in 

 the horse, the cow, &c, which shed their winter coat in the 

 spring." 93 



A slight difference in climate or pasture sometimes slightly 

 affects the fleece, as has been observed even in different districts 

 in England, and as is well shown by the great softness of the 

 wool brought from Southern Australia. But it should be 

 observed, as Youatt repeatedly insists, that the tendency to change 

 may generally be counteracted by careful selection. M. Lasterye, 

 after discussing this subject, sums up as follows: "The preser- 

 vation of the Merino race in its utmost purity at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, in the marshes of Holland, and under the rigorous 

 climate of Sweden, furnishes an additional support of this my 

 unalterable principle, that fine-woolled sheep may be kept 

 wherever industrious men and intelligent breeders exist." 



lhat methodical selection has effected great changes in several 



92 Youatt on Sheep, d 69 .I,™ . 



Lord Somerville is quoted' Sel p 117 ^f^^t^ t0 ^^ ~ 



on the presence of wool under the hair' Va a I ' 



With respect to the fleeces of Austl O ! ^ ""* BaChmaD ' ' ^ 



Han sheep, p. 185. On selection conn ^^<* North America,' ^ 



H 2 



