26 
THE MANY-HORNED SHEEP. 
Every reader must be so familiar with tli^ 
figure of the sheep that it is unnecessary to 
enter into a formal description of this family 
of the pecora. In its domesticated state th^ 
sheep appears to be so far removed from 
state of nature as to render it difficult to point 
out the original stock : but naturalists in ge- 
neral are of opinion that it is descended froW' 
the argali or wild sheep, the musmon, or mouf 
Ion, of BufFon. 
The variety of the species of this animal 
is so great that scarcely any two countries 
produce sheep of the same kind. There b 
found a manifest difference in all, either if 
the covering, the shape, the size, or the hornS' 
Thus the sheep of Iceland, Russia, and othef 
cold regions of the north, though they re' 
