128 
GENUS OVIS. 
and in the presence of a beard, with sharp-pointed 
ears ; and to these might be added the remark of an 
able naturalist, that the males of Capra are always 
very strongly odorous during the rutting season, while 
the reverse is the case with the sheep ; and it is 
mentioned in the IconograpJda of Bonaparte, as a 
characteristic mark, that Ovis or the True Sheep are 
always furnished with an interdigital hole, opening 
on the anterior part of each foot, and secreting a se- 
baceous substance. This, he remarks, is wanting 
not only in Capra but in every other ruminant. They 
are timid, defenceless, and of a more dependent cha- 
racter than the Goats. 
The Sheep is certainly one of the animals which 
was first placed by the Divine Providence under 
subjection to man. From the earliest period of the 
world’s history it has continued administering to 
the wants of almost all nations, and at the present 
time, is more extensively used in the human economy 
than any other animal. It is even sometimes em- 
ployed in the less usual character of a beast of burden. 
Major Skinner relates in his excursions in India an 
instance of this fact. 
“ I met several merchants, natives of the province 
of Bisehur, returning from it, driving a flock of sheep, 
bearing loads from thirty-five to forty pounds each. 
The burdens were swung in bags over their backs, 
without any cords to bind them on, and they moved 
up the steep crags with the greatest nimbleness and 
indifference to the weight. It is very rare to find a 
