6G 
On  the  Purih  Sheep  of  Thibet. 
He  proceeds,  however,  to  detail  a practice  which  singularly  agrees 
with  the  most  modern  processes  of  improved  agriculture : — 
“ This  point  is  so  well  understood  here  that  sheep  are  bought  in  some 
parts  ol'  Ladakh,  l'rom  grazing  countries  in  which  there  is  no  tillage, 
merely  for  their  dung,  &c.  during  winter.  They  are  placed  in  small  yards, 
of  which  the  floor  is  bespread  with  a coating  ot  soil,  such  as  it  is,  and  are 
fed  with  lucerne  hay,  given  with  such  regard  to  cjuantity  that  within  two 
or  three  hours  not  a stem  nor  a leaf  remains ; and  this  is  repeated  in  such 
a way  as  to  prevent  the  smallest  possible  waste.  So  soon  as  the  stratum 
is  sufficiently  saturated  with  urine  and  dung  it  is  carried  off,  and  a fresh 
coating  is  given. 
“ To  return  to  the  Purik  sheep,  it  gives  two  lambs  within  twelve  months, 
and  is  twice  shorn  within  that  period.  The  clip  may  afford  three  pounds 
in  the  annual  aggregate,  and  the  first  yield  is  fine  enough  for  tolerably 
good  shawls.” 
Such  is  Mr.  Moorcroft’s  account  of  these  curious  sheep,  to 
which  no  further  information  has  been  added  until  they  were  suc- 
cessfully reared  at  Osborne.  They  are  interesting,  both  in  a 
scientific  and  an  agricultural  point  of  view.  It  is  still  a question, 
— What  breed  of  wild  sheep,  if  any,  is  the  original  stock  of  our 
domestic  sheep  ? some  having  supposed  them  to  spring  from 
the  Siberian  Argali,  and  some  from  the  African  Muzmon. 
Naturalists  notv  incline  towards  the  Muzmon.  But  it  is  re- 
markable that  the  sheep  carried  by  the  Spaniards  to  America, 
and  now  apparently  wandering  masterless  over  the  Cordilleras, 
bear  lambs  twice  in  the  year.  Azzara  says  that  the  ewes  there 
yield  at  least  three  lambs  every  year.  They  must  be  supposed  in 
this  as  in  other  particulars  to  revert,  like  the  horse  and  the  ox  in 
those  countries,  towards  their  original  type.  Now  the  Muzmon 
is  said  to  bring  forth  but  once  in  the  year,  but  the  Argali  twice. 
Here  then  is  some  indication  of  an  eastern  origin  for  our  sheep. 
Our  own  origin  was  certainly  from  a country  tenanted  by  the 
Argali,  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Hindu-kush.  But  whether 
our  Indo-Germanic  ancestors  came  in  a nomade  state  bringing 
their  flocks  with  them,  or  whether,  as  the  history  of  their 
language  seems  to  show,  they  had  passed  beyond  that  state,  and 
came  therefore  as  conquering  bands  to  appropriate  the  wealth  of 
the  primitive  Europeans,  is  a question  which  admits  of  course  no 
positive  answrer.  If  the  latter  supposition  be  true,  the  original 
cultivators  of  Europe,  the  Iberians,  whose  gallant  descendants  the 
Basques  remain  to  this  day  pent  up  in  the  narrow  corner  of  Biscay, 
might  naturally  have  brought  their  sheep  with  them  from  Africa, 
by  which  road  they  are  themselves  supposed  by  Bishop  Thirlwall 
to  have  arrived  in  Europe.  The  chief  scientific  interest  turns 
upon  the  great  question  in  physiology,  what  amount  of  variation 
constitutes  a distinct  species,  and  what  amount  may  be  supposed 
to  arise  from  natural  or  artificial  circumstances.  Besides  the 
