The Sheep is one of the animals which man has subjected to his use; and one, too, of primary importance in the domestic economy of almost every civilised nation. Like the horse, dog, cat, ox, and pig, it has assumed the greatest possible variety. Many naturalists have treated these varieties as species; but those writers of greatest authority agree in considering all the domestic breeds as having originated from one common stock; and it would be idle here to speculate upon this question. Of the _tame sheep_ there are not less than forty very distinct kinds, besides numerous varieties of each of these kinds! These, of course, are distributed among many nations, and exhibit a very great difference in point of size and general appearance. Some are without horns, while others have these appendages very large, and of eccentric shape; some are covered with long crisp wool; others have the wool lank and straight; while still others have no wool at all, but instead a coat of hair resembling that of a spaniel or Newfoundland dog! But, besides these distinct kinds, as already stated, there are numerous varieties of each kind. For instance, the common sheep of England is itself branched out into quite as many as twenty breeds, each of which has a name of its own, and differs from all the others in many essential characteristics. Leaving the common sheep of our own country, we shall say a few words of some of the more noted kinds that are in the possession of different nations abroad. From Spain comes the Merino, so celebrated for the quality of its wool; while in Astracan and other Oriental countries there is a breed, the lambs of which furnish the well-known Astracan lambs'-skin, one of the most beautiful and valuable of furs. The Wallachian sheep, bred in Hungary, Transylvania, and the Danubian principalities, also produces a flue fur-like skin, much worn by the peasantry of Eastern Europe, in jackets and cloaks termed "bundas." A very similar kind of hairy-coated sheep is propagated throughout Asiatic Russia and Siberia--the skins affording a warm and comfortable clothing for the natives of these cold countries. In the Indian countries there are many varieties, such as the Barwall of Nepaul, and also the Huniah, Cago, and Seeling, belonging to the same kingdom. Again, in the Deccan there is a breed known as Deccan sheep, another called Garar, and two others in Mysore denominated respectively the Carrimbar and Shaymbliar. China has a variety known as the Morvan, with very long legs; and in Russia, again, there is a kind with tails so long that their tops drag upon the ground; and another in Northern Russia, with tails so short that they appear altogether wanting!