confirms this statement. "This I am fully aware of, having sent home some wool esteemed of good quality, which lost above half its weight in washing, and produced a cloth about 12s. per yard in value, which I sold at the Cape, and the result paid me little more than 5 per cent. on the capital * The difficulties which at first opposed the establishment of the Merino sheep have now been conquered, and wool of excellent quality from almost every part of the colony, and particularly from the eastern districts, has been sent to England. Some British sheep have also been tried, particularly the South Downs; but there, as in their native clime, these have yielded to the Merino, so far as the manufacture of fine cloth was concerned. In 1804, there were in the colony 536,634 sheep. In 1811, there were 1,293,740, being an increase of 757,106 in seven yearst. In 1810, 29,717 lbs. of wool were imported into Great Britain from the Cape of Good Hope. In 1833, the importation had increased to 93,325 lbs‡. As to the actual state of the fleece, M. Lasteyrie, the unwearied advocate of the Merinos, uses this remarkable language, and which should never be forgotten by the breeder of every kind of sheep and everywhere :— -The preservation of the Merino race in its utmost purity at the Cape of Good Hope, in the marshes of Holland, and under the rigorous climate of Sweden, furnish an additional support of this, my unalterable principle, fine-wooled sheep may be kept wherever industrious men and intelligent breeders exist §.' ANGOLA SHEEP. Skirting the south-western coast towards Guinea too little is known of the Africans, their habits, or their possessions, to justify any detailed account of their sheep. A very singular sheep, however, is found in Angola, called the Zunu. Its legs are long and slender, but the arms and shanks are muscular and strong. There is a slight elevation at the withers, the chest is narrow and flat, and falling in between the arms; the false ribs project, and give to the carcase a strong resemblance to that of the zebu. It is not the form which would promise much general thriftiness, and accordingly the fat is most singularly disposed. It is taken from the tail or rump, and is distributed over three parts of the animal. A small portion of it is spread over the posterior part of the loin and the commencement of the haunch. A more decided accumulation is found on the poll, and precisely of the semi-fluid character which the fat assumes in the tail, or the rump of other eastern sheep. This mass commences from the base of the ears, and extends backwards, in the form of a rounded projection, half way down the neck. Under the jaw, and commencing a little behind the angle of the mouth, and extending downwards and covering the superior part of the larynx, is a third collection of soft fatty matter, obtaining for the sheep, according to some naturalists, but improperly, for the tumour is too high and too forward, the name of the goitred sheep. This may be truly termed a curious variety of sheep; it is not found in any other part of the world. The horns are very small, drooping at first, and then turning inwards and upwards; the tail, slender and almost naked, reaches very nearly to the ground. The whole animal is covered with short close hair, giving a very curious appearance to the tail. The neck and upper part of the carcase and tail are of a pale-brown colour; the head, throat, legs, belly, and the infe *Thompson's Travels in Southern Africa, 1827, vol. ii. p. 291. Burchell's Travels, p. 144. See Table, p. 101. Lasteyrie on the Merino Sheep, p. 101. rior part of the tail are white; the forehead is unusually prominent, the eyes small and sunken, the ears exceedingly large and pendulous *. Other sheep, occupying the kingdom of Congo, are also covered with hair of a pale-brown colour, not close like the zunu, but loose and open, and with two wattles beneath the throat. The Coquo is also an inhabitant of Angola, having a greater proportion of wool under the hair, and of a finer quality, and white, with spots of a light-brown colour: the tail long and slender, but otherwise more resembling some of the European breeds. The long fat-tailed sheep, however, generally prevails. Anthony Hartwell, writing in 1597, thus describes them :-"Their muttons or sheepe are twice as grate as the sheepe of our countrey, for they divide them into five quarters (if a man may so call them), and reckon the tayle for one which commonly wayeth some twentie-five or thirtie pounds +." THE GUINEA SHEEP. There are two kinds of sheep on the Slave coast. One is of a small size, and not unlike the prevailing European sheep, but of not more than half their size. "They have no wool, but," says the old Dutch traveller, Bosman, "the want is supplied with hair, so that here the world seems inverted, for the sheep are hairy and the men are woolly. The flesh is dry and unpalatable." Barbot gives a similar account. "The sheep are not so large as ours, and have no wool, but hair like a goat, with a sort of mane like a lion on the neck, and so on the rump, and a bunch at the end of the tail. They are indifferent meat, but serve here for want of better §." The most numerous breed of Guinea sheep is of a very different character. The male is horned, the horns generally forming a semicircle, with the points forward: the females are hornless. According to Major Hamilton Smith, there is usually some black distributed about the sides of the head and on the neck, and in proportion as this colour spreads, the horns decrease in size, the ears become pendulous, and wattles are found under the throat. He saw a large Guinea ram white, but with large black spots on the head, shoulders, flanks, and legs. On the neck there was a beautiful mane of long, silky white hairs . A modern traveller says that "the sheep in Guinea have so little resemblance to those in Europe that a stranger, unless he heard them bleat, could hardly tell what animals they were, being covered with white and brown hairs like a dog ¶." In the early part of the seventeenth century the Guinea sheep were introduced into the islands near the Texel and into Groningen, and called the Mouton Flandrin or Texel sheep. Some strangely exaggerated accounts were given of them by the writers of the day. Corneille says in his Dictionary that "they produced lambs twice in the year, and usually three lambs at a time, sometimes four and five, and, occasionally, although rarely, seven at one yeaning." This is quite incredible, and Corneille himself acknowledges that it was only on their first arrival from the East, that they were thus prolific, but it will be shown, when the European sheep are described, that the Friezland and Texel breeds were, and still are, justly valued for their size, beauty of form, and abundant produce of long and fine wool, milk, and lambs. *Animal Kingdom, vol. iv. p. 327. Akeport of the Kingdom of Congo, translated by An. Hartwell, from Odoardo Lopez, p. 202. Bosman's Description of the Gold Coast of Guinea, || Animal Kingdom, p. 326. Churchill's Collection, vol. v. p. 133. THE BEARDED SHEEP. This part of Africa presents an apparent exception to the generic character of the sheep. This animal was said (page 1) to have no beard, but a small variety of the Guinea sheep has a considerable quantity of long hair flowing down towards the brisket. It is not, however, a beard, a growth of hair from the face or the jaw, as in the goat, but proceeding from various parts of the neck, and sometimes as low as the middle of it, and therefore the character of the sheep being preserved. M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, in his grand work on the Antiquities and Natural History of Egypt, describes it as not larger than a common sheep, and the throat furnished with long pendulous hairs. The horns are near to each other at the base, of a square form, turning inwards, and more than usually sharp. The knees are covered with long hair hanging all round them, with an appearance somewhat resembling ruffles, and hence it has been called the "Ovis ornata," or Mouflon à manchettes. It was shot in the neighbourhood of Cairo, but is said to be more common in Upper Egypt, and to be found in all the rocky portions of the deserts of Northern Africa*. The Bearded Sheep" of Pennant and Shaw, the "Ovis Tragelaphus" of Desmarest, is a different animal, and a goat rather than a sheep. It is sufficient to say that it is described as having hair on the superior parts of the cheeks and upper jaws extremely long, forming a divided or double beard t.. BARBARY SHEEP. Still pursuing the western coast of Africa in a northward direction, and traversing the kingdoms of Morocco and Fez, and then turning eastward Dict. Classique d'Hist. Nat. tom. xi p. 264, and Wilson's Essays on the Origin and Natural History of Domestic Quadrupeds, in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, May, 1830. + Pennant's Zoology, in loc. within the Straits, and examining the productions of Algiers, and Tunis and Tripoli, the history of the sheep is indistinct and unsatisfactory. The longlegged, hairy sheep of Guinea is found in all these districts. It is largest and most numerous in the oases, or little islands of delightful verdure which are scattered over the ocean of sand that reaches from the western coast of Northern Africa to Egypt and Abyssinia. Fezzan is one of the largest of them, and has been most thoroughly explored. The preceding cut presents a portrait of one of them, in which the arched forehead, the pendulous ears, the shaggy hair, the dewlap beneath the throat, the disproportionate length of the legs, and the general characteristic gaunt and thriftless appearance of the animal, cannot fail of being recognised. This sheep belonged to the Zoological Society of London. * MOROCCO SHEEP. Major Hamilton Smith says that the Morocco breed has long wool, the hair on the neck rather shorter and more undulating, and of a rufous brown; the ears small and horizontal; the horns small, but turning spirally outwards; the scrotum forming two separate sacs; the general colour white, with some marks of liver colour. A specimen sent by one of the princes of Morocco was in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks. This is the first African sheep that in the least approaches to the expectations that are naturally raised respecting it by several undoubted historical facts. Columella, the uncle of him to whom we are indebted for a scientific and instructive work on agriculture (it is not a little disgraceful that it has never appeared in an English dress), lived near Cadiz during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. He happened to see some African rams, that were destined for exhibition, and probably cruel death, by wilder animals in the Roman Amphitheatre. He bought some of them, and he crossed his Spanish ewes with them; and his nephew tells us that the consequence was that he obtained a breed that resembled the sire in increased size and beauty of form, and the dam in the softness of the wool. This is a proof, not to be disputed, of the value of the Barbary sheep at that time; and if it really possessed any good qualities, they would have been discovered and diligently cultivated, when some portion of the North of Africa had rivalled the metropolis and the mistress of the world in civilization and its attendant arts, and had not only been superior to her in extent of commerce, but had been the general emporium of the eastern and western worlds. Of the high state of civilization to which the inhabitants of Northern Africa had risen, long before the importation of the first Barbary sheep into Spain, history contains sufficient proof; and even in the interior of Central Africa the traveller occasionally finds traces of ancient magnificence on which he gazes with wonder, but of the founders of which all memory has ceased. For many an age after the barbarians had swept away almost every vestige of civilization in the countries of Europe, literature and the arts, and doubtless the art of agriculture among the rest, found refuge among the dusky inhabitants of these regions; and the travellers who have lately penetrated deeply into Central and Southern Africa have given. accounts altogether unexpected, and, therefore, for a while disbelieved, of many a district rich in all the productions of nature, and the resources of art. More than thirteen hundred years after the time of Columella, Pedro IV. of Spain, whether judiciously or otherwise does not clearly appear, imported several Barbary rams for the supposed improvement of the Spanish sheep; and two hundred years subsequently, the Cardinal Ximenes had recourse to * Animal Kingdom, vol. iv. p. 326. the African rams for the same purpose. The whole of the northern coast of Africa has, however, been now explored, and with the exception of the Morocco breed, described by Major Smith, scarcely a native African sheep has been met with that deserves cultivation. What is the evident conclusion from this, but that the sheep is the child of cultivation? It may be bred and managed so as to become almost all that the agriculturist and the manufacturer could wish it to be; and if habitually neglected and abused, every good quality will gradually disappear, In this Morocco breed, however, with its long wool and prevalent white colour, some capability of former or of future improvement may be easily imagined; and the ingenious naturalist to whom reference has just been made gives a description of another variety of African sheep, more plainly developing the inherent tendency to improvement. "The last African race," says he, " we shall notice, is found in Barbary, and even in Corsica. It is policerate (more than two horns), with pendulous ears, and the tail not much widened; white in colour, posterior parts covered with wool; and from the head to the shoulders, with loose, soft hair. A crossed breed of this race with the Guinea sheep, and brought from that country, was in the possession of R. Wilding, Esq. It was entirely covered with soft, silky hair, of a silvery whiteness; on the fore and hind part of the neck the hair was of great length, especially in front; half of the nose was jetty black; on each knee and each thigh a black spot; the fetlocks and feet white. In the month of November, it began to assume a soft, woolly coat, like that of the English sheep*." THE TUNIS SHEEP IN AMERICA. A still more satisfactory account of the capability of the Barbary sheep is given by Mr. Peters, of Lancaster county, in the United States. It is extracted from the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, of which he was President. He imported some sheep from the neighbourhood of Tunis. They were hornless, and their bones small. A ewe that was killed fat, weighed 182 lbs. The fat was laid on the profitable points; it was mingled with the flesh, which was marbled in a striking degree. The mutton was acknowledged to be among the finest and best in the market; and the proportion of flesh to the size of the animal was remarkably great. The tail weighed from six to eight pounds, and, says Mr. Peters, "if properly dressed, is a feast for an epicure. The tail of a young beaver, which I have enjoyed when I dared to indulge in such food (when free from a fishy or sedgy taint, to which at certain seasons the flesh of amphibious animals is subject), is the only rival I know." The sheep were hardy, would bear cold and heat well, would fatten with little food, and much quicker than most other breeds. They were kept in condition on coarse food, and their character was that of gentleness and quietude. The lambs were dropped white, red, tawny, bluish, or black,— but the fewest of the latter. All, except the black, grew white in the colour of their fleece, although some few spots were generally left. The cheeks and shanks, and sometimes the whole head and face, were either tawny or black. Of the fleece, he says that these sheep were better set with wool than any others that he knew in America, the weight from 5lbs. to 5lbs. and useful for a variety of purposes. He never saw better home-made cloth than the selected parts of the Tunis fleeces, and especially the cut next the pelt afforded; and, alluding to their peculiar management, or * Animal Kingdom, vol. iv. p. 329. |