9 
THE SHEEP. 
HISTORY. 
of mountains. They are gregarious, assembling in large herds during the summer months; but at the rutting season fierce contests 
take place between the rams, and the herd divides into smaller bands, consisting of a male and several females. The Musmon 
is with difficulty domesticated. Judging from the specimens which have been captured and retained in a state of confinement, 
they are less docile and sensible of acts of kindness than the Domestic Sheep. The Musmon has been known to breed with 
the Domestic Sheep, and the offspring is fruitful. Pliny mentions such alliances as common, and states that the progeny were 
termed Umbri. 
Of the Wild Sheep of Africa our knowledge is less precise. One animal of the Ovine genus is described by M. Geoffroy 
St Hilaire. It is about the size of a common Ham. The horns are two feet long, and eleven inches in circumference at the 
base, diverging outwards, so that the extremities are about nineteen inches from each other. This creature, termed by St Hilaire 
Mouflon d’Afrique, appears to resemble the Musmon of Europe. 
A creature, termed Ovis tragelaphus by naturalists, but which ought rather perhaps to be classed with the genus Capra, in¬ 
habits the inland steeps of Barbary and the mountains of Egypt. It is larger than a Fallow Deer, and nearly equal to a Stag; 
the horns are thirteen inches in circumference at the base, approaching near to one another on the top of the head, angular, black, 
bending backwards and downwards, and about two feet in length. The hair on the lower part of the cheeks and under-jaw is long, 
forming a divided beard. The under part of the neck and shoulders is covered by coarse hair ; on the upper part of the neck, 
and especially at the withers, the hair is long and bristly, forming a mane; the knees are covered by long dense hairs, seemingly 
designed to protect them ; the hair on the rest of the body is short, and underneath the whole is the rudiment of a soft fine wool. 
It is a gentle and petulant creature, fond of ascending to high places, as the roofs of houses, capable of running swiftly, and of bound¬ 
ing with prodigious force. 
If the hypothesis shall be admitted, that the Domestic Sheep is derived from one or more of the species enumerated, then it 
forms a factitious race, and its distinctive characters have been communicated to it by the effects of domestication and external 
agencies. A like opinion is entertained by distinguished Naturalists regarding the origin of the Dog. This creature, so vastly 
varied in its characters and habits, is believed to be derived from the Wolf and the Jackal, to which some add the Fox and the 
Hysena. The Great Dog of the Esquimaux, and the Dog of the Prairies, might be mistaken for Wolves; the Dog of the Tur¬ 
comans is entirely a Jackal; and in Africa, there are Dogs not to be distinguished from Hyeenas. Under this supposition, all 
the minor characters of the races might be fairly ascribed to intermixture, and the effects of external agents in modifying the 
form and character of the animals. 
There is not more difficulty in applying this hypothesis in the case of the Sheep than of the Dog. In habits and form the 
Argali and Musmon as nearly resemble the Sheep of Europe and Asia, as the Wolf and other wild species of Canis resemble 
the common breeds of Dogs; and as a creature so helpless as the Domestic Sheep could scarcely exist in the wild state, where the 
larger beasts of prey were found, it has been regarded as an animal whose characters have been communicated to it by domestica¬ 
tion. It has been believed, that the Argali of Asia and the Musmon of Europe have given rise to the races of Sheep proper to 
Asia and Europe, and that similar species in Africa have given rise to the wonderfully diversified races of that continent; and 
that, although the races of Sheep may thus be derived from different sources, they may agree in those common characters as¬ 
signed by Naturalists to species, just as the Wolf Dog of the Esquimaux and the Jackal Dog of the Turcomans are classed 
as a zoological species, although the one is manifestly connected in all its characters with the Wolf, and the other with the Jackal. 
Nevertheless we have no direct evidence that any of the wild species of Ovis become common Sheep; and all our conclusions re¬ 
gal ding the origin of the latter are founded on analogy and reasonable probabilities. The Domestic Sheep, when left in a state of 
libeity, nevei tends to reassume the characters of either the Argali or the Musmon. Yet this is not a conclusive argument 
against the opinion which may be formed regarding the descent of the animal from the wild species of the genus. It seems to be 
a law of Is ature with respect to animal forms, that there is a tendency to organic change, but not to retrogression. The Wild 
Hog, when his characters become thoroughly altered by domestication, does not, when left at liberty, again become a Wild Boar; 
and the Dog, though left free for ages, as in the case of the emancipated Dogs of European Colonies, does not tend to become a 
Wolf or a Jackal. 
Whatever be the origin of the Domestic Sheep, we know that these creatures have been subjected to servitude from the 
eailiest recoids of our race. The Sacred Writings record the existence of the Sheep along with the first inhabitants of the earth ; 
and the flocks and herds of the wandering Shepherds of the East, are described with a minuteness, which enables us to compare 
the pur suits of the most ancient people with those of the inhabitants of the same countries at the present hour. Scarce any thing 
seems to have changed in the habits of men in those countries of pastoral tribes. Where Abraham pitched his tent, with his “ sheep 
and oxen, and “ asses and camels,’—where he sat at the door of his tent,-—where the stone was rolled from the wells from which 
