543 
stance that the pastoral occupation of the progenitors of our 
race forms the theme of both sacred and profane historians in 
the earliest ages of the world ; and it is a significant fact, as 
Professor Owen remarks " that the Scythians of the elevated 
plains of Asia Minor, who, according to Herodotus, 
obtained felt ; and according to Strabo, food from their 
flocks, as well as the patriarchal Hebrew shepherds of the 
plains of Mesopotamia ; the earliest instances of pastoral 
life, dwelt in that part of the earth where the wild Argali 
( Ovis ammon) still exist in greatest numbers." Why, however, 
remains of this animal have never been exhumed is a most 
extraordinary circumstance, as it is certain that the Sheep 
has been a contemporary of the Ox, Horse, Deer, Swine, 
and Goat, which have alike continued down to modern times 
both wild and domesticated, and would be subject like them 
to the same geological catastrophes, and consequently ought 
by parity of reasoning to be found under similar circum- 
stances. 
Only two suppositions can be hazarded to account for 
the absence of the bones of the Genus Ovis, and neither of 
them are satisfactory. First, that anteriorly to the human 
era, they became the prey of the various carnivorous 
animals which then predominated, and which, like the 
Hyaena, might even devour their bones, and thus obliterate all 
traces of their former existence. That such a fate befel the 
other Ruminantia is evident ; but yet in the caverns and beds 
of alluvium fragments of such bones occur with those of their 
carnivorous destroyers. Secondly, If we suppose that the 
Sheep did not exist previously to the human era, and were 
indigenous only in the east, with the geology of which we 
are not so familiar as with the various countries of Europe, 
there is still a remote probability of their bones being 
exhumed ; unless it is argued that all the deposits in which 
