The Rocky Mountain Sheep, (O. Montana,) frequently called the Big-horn by our western hunters, is found on the prairies west of the Mississippi, and throughout the wild mountainous regions, extending through California and Oregon to the Pacific. They are larger, but in other respects resemble the Argali, of which they are probably descendants, as they could easily cross upon the ice at Behring's Straits, from the northeastern coast of Asia. Like the Argali, when caught young they are easily tamed; but we are not aware that they have ever been bred with the domestic sheep. Before the country was overrun by the white man, they probably inhabited the region bordering on the Mississippi. Father Hennepin, a French Jesuit, who wrote nearly two hundred years ago, often speaks of meeting with goats in his travels through what is now the territory embraced by Illinois and Wisconsin. The wild, clambering propensities of these animals, occupying the giddy heights far beyond the reach of the traveller, and the outer coating of hair (supplied underneath, however, with a thick coating of soft wool) gives to them much of the appearance of that animal. In summer they are generally found single; but when they descend from their isolated, rocky heights in winter, they are gregarious, marching in flocks under the guidance of leaders.
The Bearded Sheep of Africa (O. Tragelaphus) inhabit the mountains of Barbary and Egypt. They are covered with a soft, reddish hair, and have a mane hanging below the neck, and large locks of hair at the ankle.
The Domesticated Sheep (O. Aries)
Embraces all the varieties of the subjugated species. Whether they have descended from any one of the wild races, is a
question yet undetermined among naturalists; but however this may be, many of the varieties apparently differ less from their wild namesakes than from each other.
The fat-rumped and the broad-tailed sheep are much more extensively diffused than any other. They occupy nearly all the southeastern part of Europe, Western and Central Asia, and Northern Africa. They are supposed to be the varieties which were propagated by the patriarchs and their descendants, the Jewish race. This is inferred from various passages in the Pentateuch, Exodus xxix. 22; Leviticus iii. 9; viii. 25; ix. 19, and some others, where "the fat and the rump" are spoken of in connection with offerings, in which the fat was always an acceptable ingredient. Dr. Boothroyd renders one of the foregoing passages, "the large, fat tail entire, taken clear to the rump." It is certain this variety gives indisputable evidence of remote and continued subjugation. Their long, pendent, drowsy ears, and the highly artificial posterior developments, are characteristic of no wild or recently-domesticated race.
This breed consists of numerous sub-varieties, differing in all their characteristics of size, fleece, color, &c., with quite as many and marked shades of distinction as the modern European varieties. In Madagascar, they are covered with hair; in the south of Africa, with coarse wool; in the Levant, and along the Mediterranean, the wool is comparatively fine; and from that of the fat-rumped sheep of Thibet the exquisite Cashmere shawls are manufactured. Both rams and ewes are sometimes bred with horns, and sometimes without, and they exhibit a great diversity of color. Some yield a carcass of scarcely 30 lbs., while others have weighed 200 lbs. dressed. The tail or rump varies greatly, according to the purity and style of breeding; some are less than one-eighth, while others exceed one-third the entire dressed weight. The fat of the rump or tail is considered a great delicacy, and in hot climates resembles oil, and in colder, suet.
The broad-tailed sheep were brought into this country, about 50 years since, by Commodore Barron and Judge Peters, and bred with the native flocks. They were called the Tunisian mountain sheep. Some of them were subsequently distributed by Col. Pickering, of Massachusetts, among the farmers of Pennsylvania; and their mixed descendants were highly prized as prolific and good nurses, coming early to maturity, attaining large weights, of a superior quality of carcass, and yielding a heavy fleece of excellent wool. The prin
cipal objection brought against them, was the difficulty of propagation, which always required the assistance of the shepherd. The lambs were dropped white, red, tawny, bluish, or black; but all excepting the black, grew white as they approached maturity, retaining some spots of the original color on the cheeks and legs, and sometimes having the entire head tawny or black. The few which descended from those originally imported into this country, have become blended with American flocks, and are now scarcely distinguishable from them.