28 4 
SHEEP, 
with ochre dilated in water. Tins smearing with 
ochre not only distinguishes the sheep of different 
proprietors* but is also supposed to render the 
Wool closer and warmer* and to contribute to the 
preservation of the sheep's health. The end of 
September is the period about which the flocks are 
conducted from the mountainous pastures where 
they have spent the summer* to milder and lower 
regions. The shepherds are careful to conduct 
each flock* if possible* to the same pastures where 
it has fed in former winters. The lambs are pro- 
duced early in the season* in consequence of the 
rams having been admitted to the ewes about the 
end of July. In March the lambs are trimmed 
of a part of their tails* and the tips of their horns ; 
marked on the nose with a hot iron ; and such 
of the males as are not meant to be kept for rams* 
castrated* or at least incapacitated for generation* 
by the squeezing of the scrotum* till the spermatic 
vessels are twisted like a rope. In April the 
flocks are led back to their summer pastures. In 
May the fleeces are shorn ; every fleece contains 
three sorts of wool ; the finest on the back and 
the belly ; a second sort on the neck and the 
sides ; and on the breasts* the shoulders* and the 
thighs* a coarser species. Considerably more 
than nine millions* seven hundred thousand pounds 
weight of wool are annually exported from Spain ; 
of which* notwithstanding the abundance and the 
superior quality of our British wool* more than 
one third comes to England. 
The African sheep form a remarkable variety 
of this species. Guinea and the desert of Sahara 
are the places of which they are originally na- 
tives ; and they have been introduced into Arne- 
rica. Their form is meagre ; their legs are long ; 
the ears are pendent* and covered* not with wool* 
but with hair ; the neck is shaggy ; and the cover- 
