180 
the importance of it, in its chief domesticated 
breeds, to farmers and entire nations, has al- 
ways been high, and rapidly increases with the 
progress of civilization, of agricultural improve- 
ment, and of manufacturing enterprise. “No 
animal,” says one writer, “ varies more than the 
sheep, and none so speedily adapts itself to 
climate. It would almost appear that Nature 
had bestowed upon it a constitution so pliant as 
to enable it to accommodate itself to any point in 
a wide range of temperature ; for it has accom- 
panied man to every quarter of the globe, becom- 
ing impressed at every change with some pecu- 
liarity, alterable only by a change of situation, 
and varying, we might almost affirm, with the 
weather ; for where the temperature is equable, 
there does the animal preserve an atmospheric 
stamp, and defy all efforts to alter the breed,— 
while, under a fluctuating sky, we can model it 
at will.” ‘No other animal,” says another 
writer, “is, in my opinion, worthy of so much at- 
tention as the sheep, it being alike valuable to 
the farmer and to the nation,—to the farmer, 
because it is raised with ease and in situations 
where other animals could not exist, and in 
general makes a better return for the quantity 
and quality of food consumed than any other 
animal—to the nation, as supplying a staple 
article of food, and giving employment to thou- 
sands of artisans by the conversion of wool into 
manufactures. In fact, the production and 
general management of sheep claims to be treat- 
ed as the foundation of good and profitable hus- 
bandry.” 
The general characteristics of the sheep as 
compared with those of the closely allied goat 
genus, are noticed in the article Goat; the prin- 
cipal wild species of sheep are described in the 
articles Argarr and Musmon; the methods of 
improving and multiplying the domestic breeds 
of sheep are discussed in the articles Brunpine 
and Crossinc ; some important points in the 
management of sheep, as to feeding and fatten- 
ing, are treated in the articles Fonp, Foop or 
Animats, Frrpine or Animats, FartEenine or 
Animats, Arrmrerass, Pasturn, Grass Lanps. 
Mustarp, Turnip, Ryn, and some others; the 
chief points in the management of ewes, with 
reference to reproduction, are discussed in the 
articles ABortion and PartuRITION ; an impor- 
tant point, in the management of sheep flocks, 
when removing them from place to place, is no- 
ticed in the article Drivine; the slaughtering 
of sheep and the preparing of their carcases for 
the market are treated in the article Mnar; 
the characteristics and diversities of their flesh 
as food for man are noticed in the articles Murron 
and Lams ; the properties, uses, and preparations 
of their other products are mentioned in the 
articles Woon, Minx, Cuness, Skin, Lzearupr, 
and Horn; and the causes, symptoms, and treat- 
ment of diseases which attack them are discussed 
in the respective articles on these diseases, such 
SHEEP. 
as Braxy, Rot, Hyparip, Pinte, Louprne-Ins, 
Scas, Drarrua@a, Dysentery, INFLAMMATION, 
Pyuumonra, and many others. We therefore do 
not need, in the present article, to touch on any 
of these numerous topics. 
General View of the Sheep Genus.—The generic 
characters of the sheep may be briefly stated as 
fellows:—The horns are directed backward, 
downward, and forward, in a somewhat spiral 
form ; the chaffron is naturally convex ; a sinus 
occurs at the internal base of the toes in both 
the fore feet and the hind feet ; two smaller toes 
or rudimentary hoofs occur behind the larger an- 
terior pair; the tail is always short in the wild 
races, but varies in length in the domesticated 
breeds; the teeth amount in all to 32,—and 
comprise 8 incisors in the lower jaw, no incisors 
in the upper jaw, and 6 molars in each side of 
both jaws. But in its domesticated state, and 
very especially in its wild one, sheep are distin- 
guished from goats and other species most nearly 
allied to them, far more by mental tempers and 
dispositions than by physical characteristics. 
Wild races of sheep inhabit the elevated re- 
gions of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and 
comprise chiefly the several species and varieties 
of musmon and argali. They differ greatly from 
one another, and still more from the domesti- 
cated breeds, in habits and in specific character- 
istics ; and, in some instances, they blend away 
into near resemblance to wild goats on the one 
hand or to domesticated sheep on the other; 
yet, in general, they exhibit very boldly the true | 
characteristics of their genus, and may be re- 
garded as, in many mixed methods, and often in 
their respective localities, the common or aggre- 
gate source of the multitudinous and very diver- 
sified domestic breeds. Some races of a medium 
character between wild and tame inhabit parts 
of Caubul, Persia, and the countries of the Tur- 
comans and others in the regions round the Cas- 
pian Sea; and one of the best known of these 
has a very coarse grey hairy fur, outward-bent 
horns like those of the argali, and a head exactly 
similar to that of the ram on the ancient oriental 
sculptures ; and this race, together with domes- 
ticated varieties of it, is the common cultivated 
sheep of a large portion of Arabia, Tartary, and 
Hindostan. Wild sheep, with seemingly other 
distinctive characteristics than those of any 
known existing races, are obscurely mentioned 
by ancient credible authors, or figure somewhat 
phantasmagorically in the descriptions of ancient 
fanciful writers. Whether any inhabited Western 
Hurope, cannot certainly be affirmed; though 
the credulous chronicler Boetius speaks of sheep » 
in the remote Hebridean island, St. Kilda, who 
had bodies larger than the largest goats, and 
horns longer than those of oxen, and tails reach- 
ing to the ground; and Pennant states that a bas- 
relief figure of an animal corresponding to this 
description was found on the wall of Antoninus 
in the vicinity of Glasgow. 
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