Burhal are perhaps the commonest of all Asiatic wild sheep. They inhabit the whole length of the higher Himalayan Range, and are found over and round the Central Asian plateau as far north as Yarkand. The horns make two half-moons at right angles to the skull. Unlike some of the other wild sheep, burhal often climb the very highest ground of all. Much of the best burhal ground is above 17,000 feet high, and, as Mr. Whitbread remarks, this alone makes the chase of such an animal difficult. As in the moufflon, the mutton is excellent. There is no difficulty whatever in taming these wild Himalayan sheep; those in the Zoological Gardens are practically domesticated.
Domesticated Sheep.
Under domestication sheep exhibit a wide variety of coat, shape, and size, very striking to the eye, and very important in regard to the produce of wool or mutton. The introduction of a particular breed, with long wool or short wool as the case may be, has often saved or altered for a time the economic condition of a colony or province. It was the introduction of the sheep which gave Australia first rank among the rich colonies of the world; and the discovery that the Cheviot breed would thrive on the Scotch hills made millions of acres remunerative which might otherwise have been very unproductive. But the only important change in the structure of the sheep in domestication is the lengthening of the tail. The carcase may be fat mutton or thin mutton, the wool long or short, fine or coarse; but the sheep itself remains true to type, and of much the same docile habits, under all the changes of the breeders.
Photo by J. T. Newman] [Berkhamsted.
SOUTH DOWN SHEEP.
The finest breed of down-sheep.
We may first say a word or two as to foreign breeds of sheep, especially those of the East. Some of these resemble the wild breeds in having smooth coats and almost no wool. The Somali Sheep, for instance, yield no wool useful for felting or spinning. They have drooping ears and black heads. Some of the finest natural wool is developed by a white sheep in Tibet. The fur is usually sold as Tibetan lamb. The wool is exactly like white floss-silk. When cured by the Chinese, the leather is like white kid, with this flossy wool attached.
Photo by W. Reid] [Wishaw, N.B.