FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 5 
This pedigree is probably entitled to about as much 
confidence as that which the Greek poets gave to the 
wonderful ram which bore the “ Golden Fleece.” He, 
according to this very respectable authority, was got 
by the sea-god Neptune, dam the nymph Theophane. 
The only well settled facts on this subject—and 
fortunately they are quite sufficient for all practical 
purposes—are, that at a period anterior to the Chris- 
tian era, fine-wooled sheep abounded in Spain; that 
they were preserved and made themselves heard of in 
the channels of trade and the domestic arts through 
all the conquests, reconquests, and other sanguinary 
convulsions of that kingdom ; that they were, or 
gradually ripened into, an exclusive breed unique in 
its characteristics, and essentially unlike all other 
breeds in the world. 
When the Merinos of Spain first attracted the ob- 
servation of other nations, they were found scattered 
over most portions of their native country, divided 
into provincial varieties which exhibited considerable 
differences; and these again were separated into great 
permanent flocks or cabanas, as the Spaniards termed 
them, which had so long been kept distinct from each 
other and subjected to special lines of breeding, that 
they had acquired the character of sub-varieties or 
families. 
cloths worn by the Romans in his time were manufactured from 
wool brought from Truditania, in Spain. Pliny, himself Governor ol 
Spain, writing just after Columella’s time, describes several fine- 
wooled varieties in that country, which must have existed there a 
long time anterior to Columella. The Barbary crosses undoubtedly 
were made with, or formed, the Chunah or long-wooled breed of Spain, 
which is altogether distinct from the Merino. 
