Family IV. Capradæ.
(Goats, &c.)
Although between an Ox and a Goat or Sheep, there seems at first sight a sufficiently obvious difference to constitute them of distinct families, it is by no means easy to define such groups by precise characters. The immense assemblage of animals, principally from Africa, which have been thrown together under the common name of Ante- lopes, greatly increase the difficulty, for while they are connected together by slight and easy gradations, they seem to defy the attempt to link them by any common characters, however loose, which will exclude on the one hand the Ox, and on the other the Goat.
Waiving, then, the further consideration of the Antelopes, we may describe the Goat and Sheep as having permanent horns in both sexes, formed of hollow wrinkled, angular sheaths of corneous substance, supported by a core or process of bone, which is very porous and full of cavities communicating with the interior of the skull. The muzzle is comparatively narrow, without any naked space around the nostrils; the tail is short; there are no fissures beneath the eyes, nor tufts of hair upon the knees.
The Goats and Sheep are remarkably sure-footed; at home upon the craggy pinnacles of lofty mountains, they leap from point to point with the utmost confidence, and find safety on projections and ledges barely sufficient for their hoofs to cover. The species, about whose distinctions there is much uncertainty, inhabit the highest and most inaccessible mountain chains, as the Alps, the Atlas, the Caucasus, and the Himalaya, in the Old World, and the Rocky Mountains in the New. In a state of domestication they have attended man, even from the very earliest times:—"Abel was a keeper of sheep."
Genus Oris. (Linn.)
The Sheep have voluminous horns, turning outwards, and more or less spirally twisted. The outline of the face (chaffron) is convex; the ears are pointed, the nostrils long and oblique, the chin usually destitute of a beard. The limbs are feebler and more slender than in the Goats, and there is an open sac at the base of the toes on each foot. The males are not odorous.
We shall speak of the Sheep (Ovis aries, Linn.) as we have it in a domesticated condition, alone; for as we have already intimated, we consider the domestic animals as having never existed in any other than a servile state, even from their creation, though individuals may have emancipated them- selves. The Sacred Scriptures make mention of the Sheep in the very earliest of its records. It was at the fall that "the Lord God made coats of skins, and clothed” our parents; and probably the original possessors of these skins were offered up in sacrificial atonement, as we know “the firstlings of the flock’ were by Abel. And thus, no sooner had sin entered into the world than the poor sinner was, by means of this animal, typically directed to look for a covering of his soul’s nakedness to the Righteousness of Another, as well as for atonement to the shedding of His Blood. Through the interesting history of the patriarchal worship, in the substitution of a ram for Isaac, in the deliverance of Israel by the blood of the paschal lamb, and especially in the varied offerings under the law, until His coming whom they shadowed forth, the Christian delights to trace the varied figures and types of the blessed Lord, once manifested as "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," and now the Object of our worship, "in the midst of the throne, a Lamb, as it had been slain."
SHEEP OF PALESTINE.[1]
The wool (Gen. xxxi. 19), the flesh (ver. 38) and the milk (Deut. xxxii. 14) seem to have been very early appreciated as valuable products of the Sheep. With us, indeed, "the milk of the flock" has given place to that of the herd; but the former two products retain their importance. Soon after the subjugation of Britain by the Romans, a woollen manufactory was established at Winchester, situated in the midst of a district then, as now, peculiarly suited to the short-woolled breed of sheep. So successful
SHEEP-SHEARING.
was this manufacture, that British cloths soon were preferred at Rome to those of any other part of the empire, and were worn by the most opulent on festive and ceremonial occasions. From that time forward the production of wool in this island, and the various textile manufactures connected with it, have gone on increasing, until the former amounts to above 100,000,000 of pounds annually, in addition to an import of half as much, principally from Saxony and Australia; while the latter are estimated to support 1,200,000 persons, producing goods to the annual value of 26,155,870l. sterling.[2]
The numerous breeds of Sheep nurtured in this country are distinguished by the comparative length of the fibres which compose their fleece. They are spoken of as short-woolled, middle-woolled, or long-woolled sheep. To the former belong the Anglo-Merino, Saxony, and Australian breeds, whose wool, short, fine, and silky, is used in the manufacture of broad-cloths.
The principal middle-woolled breeds are the South-down, Dorset, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cheviot, most of which were formerly short-woolled, but have been improved by culture. The fleece is used for the coarser cloths, flannels, and similar fabrics.
The Leicester breed, and other races which are now nearly Jost by admixture with it, such as the old Lincolnshire, are long-woolled. The fibre is characterized by strength and transparency, but is deficient in the power of felting, on which the compactness of cloth depends: its length averages about eight inches. It is used for merinos, mousselines de laine, hosiery, &c. The breeds most esteemed for the flavour of their flesh are the Welsh, the South-down, and the Cheviot sheep.