frequently of no sort of moment in the eye of the naturalist, so that they are overlooked or despised. Thus am I left to begin an exploratory agricultural excursion in a region nearly unknown, without chart or compass to assist me; nothing, therefore, can be expected but a feeble beginning, which, if pursued by others, may perhaps lead to important discoveries. In the present state of our knowledge, perhaps, the highest attainment we can hope will be to guard from error. It is unnecessary for me to attempt a systematic description of the sheep; for the animal is so well known, as to be at once recognised by its name alone. Had I indeed attempted a description, I should have been at some lofs to do it in a satisfactory manner; for I find that I must have rejected that peculiarity which persons in general would deem its most efsential characteristic, that of a wool-bearing animal. I have mét with several varieties of sheep that carry no sort of wool, nor hair, that could in any way be applied to the same purposes with wool. This is a fact which, to most persons, will be so unexpected, and in its application to the purposes of life will admit of inferences so important, that it ought not to be passed over lightly. The first sheep that I ever saw pofsefsing this peculiarity was on board a Danish East Indiaman that put into Leith roads in the year 1794. It was of a large size, and comely make. The whole body was covered over with a close coat of short, stiff, glofsy hair, of a clear nut-brown colour, very much resembling the coat of a well-dressed running horse. The animal was, in all other respects, a sheep, having like habits and propensities as the other sheep with which it associated in the ship; of these there were two or three left, which carried wool of the same sort with that common in Europe. On inquiry, I found that the wool-bearing sheep had been brought from Madras, and that the bare sheep had been taken in, with some others of the same sort, at the island of Madagascar. This fact appeared to me so`curious, that I soon afterwards mentioned it in a letter which I had occasion to write to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. President of the Royal Society, who, in return, said that it was nothing new to him; for that a considerable time ago he had had three sheep of a similar sort sent him from Spain, that he had kept them for several years in Lincolnshire, and that they never carried more wool than his coach horses. I afterwards mentioned these facts in the Royal Society of Edinburgh, where Dr. William Wright, who had lived many years in Jamaica, and had visited most of the West Indian islands, afsured me that he had found a breed of sheep pofsefsing exactly the same peculiarity in the island of St. Vincent's. Since that time I have myself found another sheep of the same kind grazing in a field near Dulwich, in Kent, of a brown and white colour mottled, without having been able to learn whence it came. I found a third sheep of the same sort at Liverpool, in June 1797. It was a beautiful lively looking creature, of a jet black colour, with short, smooth, glofsy hair. I was told it had been brought thither from some part of the coast of Africa. These facts sufficiently show that several breeds of sheep, which bear no wool (for they were each different from the other), do actually exist, and that they are by no means uncommon. That these breeds of sheep should not be propagated in cold climates, is nothing extraordinary; but that they should not have been at all known, nor adverted to, is rather a singularity. This, then, is at least one original variety totally different from any of those that have been reared in Europe; and that this peculiarity. does not originate from the climate, or other lefser circumstances, is very obvious from the facts above stated; for wool-bearing sheep, we see, are produced in the warm regions of India, as well as in Europe; and this breed is equally bare of wool in England as in Madagascar. What are the other qualities of this sheep are unknown. Another, and a distinct variety of sheep has been found by Dr. Pallas in the eastern parts of Asia in a wild state, which is there known by the name of Argali. This is a strong, active, and nimble animal. In regard to its fleece, it is different from the European and the Madagascar sheep. The principal mass of that fleece is a long shaggy hair, of a coarse qua-, lity; but among the roots of that hair is found a considerable quantity of short, fine, soft wool, which, when separated from the hair, may be wrought up in manufactures of a very fine quality. Of the sheep of this variety I have heard of no specimens in Eu rope. The third distinct variety of sheep, of which I have obtained exact information, was found in the island of Jamaica, and is esteemed a native of that island. For the knowledge of it I am indebted to Sir Joseph Banks. "Yesterday," says he, in his letter, dated October 1795, "I went to visit a friend of mine who is just returned from Jamaica. On going up to his door, I observed a sheep of an uncommon appearance; and, on inquiring what kind of sheep it was, he told me it was one of the native sheep of Jamaica that had been taken in at that island for live stock for the ship's company, but had been saved in consequence of a quick pafsage. On my exprefsing a wish to see the nature of its wool, he said that it carried no wool, but only a particular kind of hair. Still exprefsing a desire to see the nature of the fleece, whatever it was, he walked up to the sheep, which, being perfectly tame, stood still till he plucked a lock from its back between his finger and thumb. On looking attentively at this lock, he exprefsed a great degree of astonishment to find that about two thirds of the whole was a very fine wool; for, although he had lived in Jamaica about twenty years, and had seen the sheep of the same kind times innumerable, he had always been told that they carried no wool, and believed it without examination; he was now, for the first time, convinced that he had been in a mistake." Sir Joseph sent the lock of wool to me exactly as he had received it, desiring I would take notice of the hair among the wool, as he thought it was of a very singular kind. I did so, and found that the hair was every where about half an inch longer than the wool, so as to cover and hide it entirely. This hair was not of the rough shaggy sort, but exactly even and regular in the points. Each individual hair was smaller at the root than the point, and was marked crossways by alternate rings of black and white, so as to afsume a greyish colour, much like the hair of the badger. It was stiff, and a little glofsy. The wool (which could have been easily freed from the hair merely by plucking it out, as it is all uniformly longer than the wool) was short, but thick, and remarkably soft and fine. It was finer than the finest Spanish wool I had seen, and perhaps as soft as Shetland wool; so that it would have afforded a valuable article to the hat-maker in that state; or to the clothier when it had attained its full growth in the month of June. This is evidently another distinct variety of sheep, which is totally unknown to practical farmers in Britain. It is an opinion commonly received, and it has been confidently afserted to me as an undoubted fact times innumerable, that when British sheep are carried to the West Indies, they quickly lose their wool, and become covered with hair; and I make no doubt but most persons in good earnest believe that the very sheep I have just described are the degenerated progeny of English sheep. Those who have not been accustomed to accurate investigation will be apt to be imposed upon by such confident afsertions; with me, who have often interrogated the persons that have made these afsertions in the most unqualified manner, and never found one who had made the examination with such accuracy as could enable them to decide, they bear no sort of weight. Doctor Wright, before quoted, on whose accuracy I could more rely than on most others, has informed me, that he has frequently examined the English sheep that have come over, and afsures me that they carry wool of the same kind in |