G70 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
oval section in which, the major axis is very large in comparison 
to the minor axis. In this case the fibres will receive the dye, 
hut they will not felt. 
Kempy fibres are always most numerous in the fleeces of wild 
and uncultivated sheep, hut they also occur in those of the most 
cultivated races. In the former case they are generally distributed 
throughout the whole of the fleece, but in the latter they are 
usually confined to certain localities as already mentioned, and are 
almost certain indications of want of trueness in the breed of 
the sheep. These kempy fibres are in most cases larger in 
diameter and shorter in length than the wool fibres with which 
they are associated. Plate XXI V. fig. 25, represents a section of a 
coarse kemp taken from a Highland sheep. 
In the fibres taken from the fleeces of middle-classed wools, such 
as the Southdown and half-bred sheep, we have considerable uni- 
formity in the general structure of the fibres and the surface con- 
figuration of the scales, hut with frequent indications in many of 
the fibres of a return or reversion to the typical structure of the 
fibres of the original stocks out of which these artificial races have 
been produced. Plate XXIV. figs. 26 and 27 are illustrations of 
two fibres taken from the same lock of wool drawn from a Leicester- 
Botany fleece. The first exhibits all the characteristic features of 
the fibres found in a pure Leicester sheep, and the latter closely 
resembles the pure Australian merino fibres. These two fibres must, 
from their position in the lock of wool from which they were taken, 
have been generated within follicles which were imbedded side by 
side in the skin. They may he compared with Plate XXIV. figs. 
4 and 8. 
In the perfectly pure races of sheep, such as the best English 
Southdowns, or the Spanish, German, and Australian merinos, in 
which we find the greatest perfection of the fleece and fibre in all 
the most desirable characteristics of wool, and where every care and 
attention has been paid to the health and comfort of the sheep, we 
also find the least tendency to any variation in the individual fibres. 
Even here, however, we find differences in the structure of fibres 
which have grown in close continuity with each other. This differ- 
ence can only he explained by considering some of the arrangements 
of the epidermal scales as undoubted cases of reversion to the type 
