he fat-tailed Persian sheep,
which are represented in a fabulous account as being obliged to draw
their broad tails, that weighed 40 pounds, behind them on wheels.
These are the sheep that supply the Astrakan and Persian lamb which is
so much worn now. The fur is caused to lie in peculiar waves or tight
rings by sewing the newly born lamb in a tightly fitting covering
which keeps the fur from being mussed. In the Berlin Zoological Garden
there is a very fine four-horned, fat-tailed ram, from the steppes on
the lower Volga. From this region come also the large-boned,
fat-rumped sheep, which have a large mass of fat on each side of the
stunted tail. In the illustration this peculiarity does not show well,
on account of the thick winter wool. Their color is red, with dirty
white. When Wissman and Bumiller returned from their last expedition,
they brought a fine ram of a different breed of fat-rumped sheep,
which are raised by the Kirghise, on the Altai Mountains. They are
smaller than those from the steppes of the Volga, but have finer wool,
and evidently belong to a finer breed. As mutton tallow is very
useful, and has been used even from the most ancient times by sheep
raisers in the preparation of food, they prize sheep with these masses
of fat on the tail and rump, which were purposely developed to the
greatest possible degree.

[Illustration: FAT-TAILED SHEEP (FOUR-HORNED RAM).]

[Illustration: FAT-RUMPED SHEEP.]

The steinbock and the chamois, which live in the highest mountains,
are still found, but other breeds, such as the argalis, which
inhabited the foot hills and the high table lands, have disappeared,
as Europe has become more thickly populated. We know that they
formerly lived there, by the fossil remains of the oldest Pliocene in
England (Ovis Savinii Newton), of the caves of bones near Stramberg in
Moravia (Ovis argaloides Nehring), and of the diluvial strata near
Puy-de-Dome Mountain in the south of France (Ovis antiqua Pommerol).

For the above and the accompanying illustrations we are indebted to
Daheim.

* * * * *

[Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 1172, page 18756.]

PATENTS.[1]

[Footnote 1: To be presented at the Niagara Falls meeting (June,
1898) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and
forming part of Vol. six of the Transactions.]

By JAMES W. SEE, Hamilton, Ohio, Member of the Society.

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