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Buffon's Natural History. Volume 08 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c — John Shaqi

Buffon's Natural History. Volume 08 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de

History

Buffon's Natural History. Volume 08 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c

Name: Buffon's Natural History. Volume 08 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Author: Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de

Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de

Natural history

In short, in the warmest countries of Africa and India, there is a
breed of large sheep with rough hair, short horns, hanging ears, and a
kind of dewlap under the neck. This sheep, Leo Africanus, and Marmol
call _adimain_, and it is known to the naturalists by the names of
the _Senegal ram_, the _Guinea ram_, the _Angola sheep, &c._ He is
domestic, like ours, and like him, subject to varieties. The sheep,
though they differ in particular characters, resemble each other so
much in other respects that we cannot doubt they are of the same kind.
Of all domestic sheep, this appears to approach nearest to a state
of nature; he is larger, stronger, quicker, and consequently more
capable of supporting himself; but as he is only found in the hottest
countries, and cannot bear cold, and as he does not exist in his own
climate in a wild state, but is domestic and obliged to the care of man
for his support we cannot regard him as the primitive breed, from which
all the rest have derived their origin.

In considering domestic sheep, therefore, according to the difference
of climate, we find, 1. The sheep of the north, who have many horns,
and whose wool is coarse. The sheep of Iceland, Gothland, Muscovy, and
other parts of the north of Europe, have all coarse hair, and appear to
be of the same breed.

2. Our sheep whose wool is very good and fine in the mild climates of
Spain and Persia, but in hot countries changes to a rough hair. We have
already observed the conformity in the influence of the climates of
Spain and Chorazan, a province of Persia, upon the hair of goats, cats,
and rabbits; it acts in the same manner upon the wool of sheep, which
is very fine in Spain, and still finer in that of Persia.

3. The broad-tailed sheep, whose wool is also very fine in temperate
countries, such as Persia, Syria, and Egypt; but which in warm
countries, changes into hair more or less coarse.

4. The _strepsiceros_, or Canadian sheep, who resembles ours both in
wool and make, excepting the horns, which are erect, and in the form of
a screw.

_Engraved for Barr's Buffon_

[Illustration: FIG. 139. _Mouflon._]

[Illustration: FIG. 140. _Iceland Ram._]

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Buffon's Natural History. Volume 08 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c

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