from unknown causes of
considerable deviations of structure, have all probably played their parts;
yet that the occasional preservation in each district of those individual
animals which were most valued by each owner has perhaps been even more
effective in the production of the several British breeds. As soon as two
or more breeds had once been formed in any district, or when new breeds
descended from distinct species were introduced, their crossing, especially
if aided by some selection, will have multiplied the number and modified
the characters of the older breeds.

SHEEP.

I shall treat this subject briefly. Most authors look at our domestic sheep
as descended from several distinct species; but how many still exist is
doubtful. Mr. Blyth believes that there {94} are in the whole world
fourteen species, one of which, the Corsican moufflon, he concludes (as I
am informed by him) to be the parent of the smaller, short-tailed breeds,
with crescent-shaped horns, such as the old Highland sheep. The larger,
long-tailed breeds, having horns with a double flexure, such as the
Dorsets, merinos, &c., he believes to be descended from an unknown and
extinct species. M. Gervais makes six species of Ovis;[216] but concludes
that our domestic sheep form a distinct genus, now completely extinct. A
German naturalist[217] believes that our sheep descend from ten
aboriginally distinct species, of which only one is still living in a wild
state! Another ingenious observer,[218] though not a naturalist, with a
bold defiance of everything known on geographical distribution, infers that
the sheep of Great Britain alone are the descendants of eleven endemic
British forms! Under such a hopeless state of doubt it would be useless for
my purpose to give a detailed account of the several breeds; but a few
remarks may be added.

Sheep have been domesticated from a very ancient period. Ruetimeyer[219]
found in the Swiss lake-dwellings the remains of a small breed, with thin
and tall legs, and with horns like those of a goat: this race differs
somewhat from any one now known. Almost every country has its own peculiar
breed; and many countries have many breeds differing greatly from each
other. One of the most strongly marked races is an Eastern one with a long
tail, including, according to Pallas, twenty vertebrae, and so loaded with
fat, that, from being esteemed a delicacy, it is sometimes placed on a
truck which is dragged about by the living