to whom nature had not given these weapons of offence, and of the use of which all animals soon become too conscious. There is not, however, a poiled breed of the present day in which lambs are not occasionally dropped with the rudiments of horns: some of these horns grow to their full size, and others are curiously attached to the skin alone, and either hang loosely down, or drop off.

THE ORIGINAL BREED.

From very early times two breeds of sheep have inhabited the countries over which the patriarchal shepherds roamed, and have spread themselves through the neighbouring districts. One has, as its principal characteristic, a lengthened tail, with an accumulation of fat around the superior part of it. These sheep have been found in Arabia and Syria, but most numerous in the interior, and in the southern part of Africa; and constituting the only native breed of these latter regions. The others have an accumulation of fat commencing at the posterior part of the loins, swelling gradually into a considerable mass towards the rump, and presenting behind two enlargements of a more or less globular form. This kind of sheep is scarcely known in Africa, but it covers both the north and the south of Asia; it prevails far more than the other in Palestine; it reaches even to the interior, and the northern part of Russia; and it is the kind of sheep of which the flocks of the Kalmucks and the Turcomans, and indeed of almost all the wandering hordes of shepherds are, to the present day, composed.

The reader is here presented with a cut of it as it exists at the present day in the north-eastern part of Europe, through the whole of the temperate regions of Asia, and to a greater or less degree from the Baltic Sea to the North Pacific Ocean *. It is purest in the deserts of Great Tartary, and influenced in its form only by pasturage, soil, and climate; no other variety being near to contaminate its blood. The following is Dr. Anderson's account of this breed; not so precise, indeed, as could be wished, but sufficiently satisfactory.

* See Pallas's Travels in Russia, and particularly Anderson on the Russian Sheep, p. 26.

"The flocks of all the Tartar hordes resemble one another, by having a large yellowish muzzle, the under jaw often projecting beyond the upper; by long hanging ears, and by the horns of the adult ram being large, spiral, wrinkled, angular, or bent in a lunar form. They have slender legs in proportion to their bodies, a high chest, large hanging testicles, and tolerably fine wool mixed with hair. The body of the ram, and sometimes of the ewe, swells gradually with fat towards the posteriors, where a solid mass of fat is formed on the rump, and falls over the anus in place of a tail, divided into two hemispheres, which take the form of the hips, with a little button of a tail in the middle to be felt with the finger."

The admirers of some of the improved breeds of sheep will find great fault with the large and heavy head; the comparatively thin neck, and especially at the base, where it proceeds from the chest; the depth and want of substance from the withers to the elbow; the deficiency of brisket, its place being supplied by a kind of dewlap; the want of depth immediately behind the elbow; the tendency to belly posteriorly; the length of the legs; the gauntness and muscularity compared with the roundness and compactness of some modern breeds: but it cannot be denied, that, considering it as belonging to the wandering shepherds, as traversing a vast extent of country, and subject to want and to drought, and to the vicissitudes of the seasons, it is not badly adapted to the situation in which it is found, and there are evident capabilities of improvement, when chance, or the progress of civilization, may give opportunity for its development.

THE PRESENT TARTARIAN SHEEP.

I The flocks of all the Tartar hordes have much resemblance to each other; but climate, soil, &c., produce some small difference in them, whether reared by the Tartars, or by the Russians, in the western deserts of Great Tartary, from the river Volga to the Irtish and the Altaic chain of mountains. In all that tract of country the pasturage abounds with acrid and liliacious plants in spring; while in summer, at least in the open spots where sheep delight to feed, beside the common grasses, bitter and aromatic plants, wormwood, camphorosna, and many species of saltwort abounding in juices and salts are also found.

These sheep, liberally fed at first with the mother's milk, and afterwards traversing a rapid succession of saline and abundant pasture, attain a very considerable size. They often weigh more than 200 lbs., and may be considered as the largest of the unimproved sheep; of which weight the soft oily fat alone that forms on the rump amounts to from 20 to 40 lbs. * The Uropygium, or fat rump, which is made up of this oily species of fat, is so large as to incommode the animal in walking; but when the same sheep are carried into the interior parts of Russia, the tail loses half its size and weight, nay sometimes more than that, from a change in their food and mode of life +.

On the banks of the Volga below Lamara these saline pastures are

*The following is a description of one of these Steatopyga, or fat-rumped Kirguise rams, and that not of the largest size:-"Head rather less than many others of the same variety, and all black, even to the horns. Ears pendent and black, except the outer rim, which was spotted with white, as were the legs. Throat covered with greyish hair, the rest of the animal white. Horns spiral. Uropygium (fat-rump) very large, and divided into two hemispheres. Anus filled with fat, or rather stuffed with it in all parts. Scrotum covered with hair. Prepuce large. Wool coarse, and some inches long on the back, sides, and extremities; while it is mixed every where with hair.

"Total weight of the ram before cut up or skinned, 193 lbs. ; the fat of the uropygium and anus 38 lbs."-Anderson, p. 31.

Anderson, p. 31.

wanting the snow likewise lies deep during the greater part of the winter, often causing a destructive scarcity of food among those who make no provision for a future day. The same kind of sheep prevail there; but they are diminished in size, and the fat rump is more than proportionably lessened, and even the horns are frequently wanting. On the Janisey they are considerably less. In other parts of these Tartarian regions, where the pasture is abundant but there is no saline impregnation, sheep of a size occasionally exceeding that of the Kirguise are found; but the excrescence on the rump is much smaller, and rarely greater than that which is found on the corresponding parts of some of the improved British breeds when fatted to excess.

A very intelligent writer gives a similar description of the Kerguise, or Kerguise and Kalmuckian sheep. In the mountainous districts" they are higher than a new-born calf, and so strong and heavy that the full grown ones weigh between four and five poods. In shape they resemble the Indian sheep. They have the arched front of the old battering-ram, prominent under lips and large pendulous ears. Instead of a tail, they have a monstrous round of fat like a cushion, weighing 30 or 40 lbs., and yielding between 20 and 30 lbs. of tallow. Their wool is coarse, entangled together, and strongly mixed with hair. The rams are universally, and the wethers generally, horned; and some, like the Icelandic, have four, five, or six horns. During the whole winter they seek their fodder under the snow, without losing their condition by it. To this the shortness of the season much contributes, as well as the circumstance that the snow passes away more rapidly on the salt parts of the steeps; and all animals are fattened by feeding on the vegetables of a saline soil.

"So rich is the country with sheep, that common Tartars often possess a thousand, and some of the richer ones more than fifty thousand.

"The Kalmuckian sheep differ from the Kirguise in their smaller size, less curved forehead, lesser although pendulous ears, less hairy wool, and being seldom horned. They are sadly neglected; indeed it is in a manner impossible to compel the Kalmucks to be good agriculturists *."

In the neighbourhood of Caucasus and Taurida, the hind-quarters of the sheep are salted as hams, and sent in great quantities to the northern provinces of Turkey. In the south-east of European Russia, and particularly in the government of Kazan, the wool of the sheep is particularly fine, and almost without any mixture of hair; but, generally speaking, it is coarse, and used only for inferior cloths; but the greater part of the cloths of this description used in Russia are imported. Much of this coarse Russian wool is imported. It is used in the manufacture of carpets, and the list of some cloths is made of it. The present mode of dressing cloths cannot be fully effected except the list is made considerably stronger than the body of the cloth. Low foreign wools are used for this purpose, because they are stronger, and can be procured at less price. Some very fine wool is imported from the south of Russia, and especially from the port of Odessa. The Russian wool is usually very clean and white. It probably is not washed on the back of the animal, but after it is shorn.

THE POLLED FAT-RUMPED SHEEP.

A breed of fat-rumped sheep prevails in Persia. Anthony Jenkinson, in his Travels from Moscow to Khorasan, in the 16th century, thus speaks of them :-" The people have great store of cattel, as camels, horses, and sheep, both tame and wild. Their sheep are of great stature, with large buttocks weighing 60 or 80 lbs. in weight †.

* Agricultural Magazine, Dec., 1804. + Hackluyt's Collection, vol. i. p. 329.

This cut contains the portrait of a Persian ram, belonging to the Zoological Society of London. It is not of the enormous size just spoken of, but gives a fair representation of the hornless, fat-rumped sheep of the east. The wool, although short, and somewhat curled, is coarse and hairy. This is a fault, however, which, with due care, might probably be removed in the course of a few generations. The level back and belly, the rounded carcass, and the light small leg, would induce the easy belief that from such animal our down and mountain sheep might originally have sprung. There is no irreconcileable difference of form: the only peculiarity is the enlarged buttock. Difference of pasture and of climate might materially effect that; or, what is much more probable, skilful selection and breeding might convert the disposition to accumulate fat on a particular part into a tendency to acquire general good condition*.

The broad or fat-tailed sheep are probably varieties of the fat-rumped ones, and will be presently described.

Are there any passages of Scripture which indicate that this breed of sheep, which now mostly prevails in Palestine, and forms the flock of the wandering shepherd there, is the same with that of which the sacred historians often speak? There are passages which seem to have a singular and satisfactory reference to these distinguishing characters of the eastern sheep of the present day.

*Fraser, in his Travels through Khorassan, gives a very sufficient reason why the Persian sheep-owner should be somewhat careless about the improvement of his flock, at least in the neighbourhood of royalty. He says "The Persian king is a good shot, and delights to shoot at a mark; but he also loves to make his amusement profitable. The mark commonly made use of is a live sheep, near which stands a furosh ready to tell the success of the shot, and to dispatch the animal, if only wounded. When his majesty is ready to shoot, he challenges his courtiers about him to bet with him about the shot, and it would be the height of rudeness and impolicy to refuse. The king's game, however, is sure; for whether he strikes the animal or not, the furosh, who has had his lesson, and whose property the carcass is to be, rushes on it the moment the shot comes, with a Mash Allah!' (bravo), knocks it down, and cuts its throat; and no one, of course, can question the author of its fate. These sheep are always the property of some villager or farmer near the place, and are never paid for by his majesty."

FURTHER PROOF OF THE PATRIARCHAL BREED.

The Israelites, at first in conformity with the custom of their forefathers, and afterwards by Divine command, offered in sacrifice different animals, as an acknowledgment of gratitude to that Being from whom they derived every good. Sometimes the whole animal was burned; at other times the fat, or the fattest part, was selected, whether because it was the most delicate and valuable part of the animal*, or that it would most readily take fire, and diffuse itself in the air, and rise a grateful offering to Him who was supposed to inhabit the heavens. The book of Leviticus arranges the form and ceremony which was to accompany these offerings. First, it describes the manner in which they were consecrated to their office who were to conduct and preside over these sacrifices. Aaron was brought before the altar, and the "ram of consecration" was led out and slain. And Moses "took the fat, and the rump, and all the fat that was upon the inwards," and “burnt them on the altar upon the burnt-offering t." Aaron, after his consecration, makes the first offerings for himself and the people; and when every thing is prepared, the burnt-offering is placed upon the altar, and Aaron "did wash," cleanse from blood, "the inwards and the legs, and burnt them upon the burnt-offering upon the altar ‡.”

*The substance which was accumulated on the rumps of these sheep, and formed the broad part of the tail in other sheep, consisted more of the nature of marrow than of fat, and was esteemed one of the greatest delicacies that could be presented at the table. Its almost semi-fluid character is very evident in the Persian sheep belonging to the Zoological Society of London.

Leviticus viii. 25, 28.

Leviticus ix. 14. The question whether the different varieties of the same species of animal have been produced by accidental deviations from one original parent breed, or whether there may not have been, from the beginning, several varieties of the same species, endowed with different qualities, and instincts, and propensities, adapting them to the situation in which they are found, is one of considerable interest to the zoologist, but with which the breeder of any species of animal has little to do. It is also a question difficult to solve-it is one that does not admit of demonstrative proof either the one way or the other, and on which it does not become the candid inquirer to speak positively and with arrogance.

These observations are induced by the careless and presumptuous way in which almost every natural historian at once settles the matter. He does not seem to admit of any doubt respecting the affair, but at once assumes it as a certainty that every species of animal was derived from one original parent, and sets himself to work to inquire which was the parent breed, and, worse than all, derives many fanciful, nay, even some practical conclusions from that which rests at best only on probability. Thus there is scarcely a writer on sheep who does not take the question at once for granted, and describe the Argali, or the Musmon, or some creature of his own imagination, as the common origin of all.

There is no doubt that one variety of domesticated animals, if prevented from mixing with any other, will in general propagate the same kind without any material change. It is also acknowledged that if, from some unknown or accidental cause, an individual is produced, possessing some unusual peculiarities, his progeny, to a certain degree, will probably possess the same peculiarities; and if a male and a female are selected with these peculiarities, and care is afterwards taken to exclude all who have them not, a new and permanent breed may be established. It is likewise sufficiently clear, that climate, soil, and pasture will gradually effect a considerable change in the form and the quality both of the wool and the flesh of every breed. These changes, however, have their limits; they go no farther than producing modifications of the former breed: the essential and distinguishing character may yet be recognised, or, if it should be rendered somewhat obscure, it will burst forth again when the animal regains his native soil and climate.

The question is, when there are varieties of a species essentially and altogether different from each other; when the act of man has and could have little to do in effecting such a difference; when there was nothing to prevent that intercourse which would soon wear down and efface every accidental variety, and restore the primitive character-the question then is, whether these variations are not best explained on the supposition of an original adaptation of each to the situation in which it was placed, and the functions it was to perform. See Price on Sheep, p. 14.