THE ANGORA GOAT. 183 
that it is a guarantee that care has been exercised in 
their breeding. 
The great fundamental rule in the breeding of stock 
is, that like produces like or the likeness of some 
ancestor. It is found that the offspring generally bears 
a resemblance to the parents, and where these differ 
materially, the offspring is intermediate between the 
two, in their specific qualities and in general appear- 
ance. It often happens, however, that the progeny 
resembles neither of the parents, but is like the grand 
parents or some still more remote ancestor. Instances 
of this are frequently seen in the black and spotted 
sheep that occasionally appear in flocks that have not 
been long subjected to rigorous selection, and which 
are instances of reversion or throwing back as it is 
called, to some remote progenitor, which existed before 
the race had been so far improved as to breed true to 
one colour. This principle is also called Atavism, from 
Atavus, an ancestor. 
Careful selection and breeding to one type for a long 
number of generations, will, in each generation, in^ 
crease the chances or probabilities that no departure 
from the selected type will take place. It is not to be 
supposed that, although we look upon the matter as 
a subject of chance, that it is any such thing in the 
proper acceptance of the term. All events are regu- 
lated by natural laws, instituted by the Creator of the 
Universe. The turn of a die is regulated by the 
amount of force expended upon it in a particular 
direction, the friction it is subjected to, and other causes. 
From want of knowledge of these causes, we are 
accustomed to call the result chance. It is but rarely 
that future events can be predicted with certaintv but 
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