Sept. II. Next morning before day break, the Han gathered his grandees, and spoke to them as follows: "Let "it be known unto you, that I yesterday carried "off the Czarowitz Ivan, a child of uncommon "beauty and prudence. I wish to know perfectly "whether all is true that is said of him; and I am "determined to employ every means of trying his "qualifications." The grandees having heard the the Han's words bowed themselves to the girdle. The flatterers among them praised the Han's conduct, when he had carried off a child, nay the child of a neighbouring Czar: the mean spirited approved, saying," right lord Han, our hope, whatever you do must be right." A few of them who really loved the Han, fhook their heads, and when the Han afked them why they held their tongues, they told him frankly, "You have done wrong in carrying "off the son of a neighbouring Czar, and you can "not escape misfortune, unless you compensate for "this step." The Han answered, Just so; you 66 1 are always discontented, and pafsed by them. He ordered the Czarowitz to be brought to him as soon as he fhould awake. The child seeing that they wished to carry him, said, "Do not trouble yourselves, I can walk. I will go myself." Having come into the Han's kibitka, he bowed to them all, first to the Han, and then to the rest on the right and left. He then placed himself before the Han with such * As I find I am unable to give a translation sufficiently expressive of the sense of the original here, I fhall set it down with a literal translation. Tak na desha gofudar Han, kak inako bi kak tebe na serdtse prijdet; that is; So hope lord Han, how otherwise to be how to you on the heart will come. a respectful, polite, and prudent mein, that he filled all the Kirguise and the Han himself with wonder. The Han however recollecting himself, spoke as follows; "Czarowitz Ivan! they say of you that you are a wise child, pray seek me a flower, a rose "without prikles that stings not. Your tutor will "fhow you a wide field: I give you a term of three "days." The child bowing again to the Han said, 'I hear,' and went out of the kibitka to his own home. To be concluded in our next. ON THE DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF SHEEP IN A WILD AND DOMESTIC STATE, REARED IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE, AND BY THE PASTORAL NATIONS FROM THE FRONTIERS OF EUROPE TO و THOSE OF CHINA. D. Guthrie OVIS TAURICA. THERE is still a breed of fheep in the Crimea, (lately brought back to its ancient appellation of Tauride by her imperial majesty,) which even the wide range of Dr Pallas's travels did not permit him to examine, but which he hopes to describe on his journey home from the new excursion he is going upon for the advancement of natural history in general, and the completion of his Flora Rossica in particular; a splendid work executed by the learned academician, at the sole expence of her imperial majesty, who presents it to the learned in Europe, as a mark of her attention to science, and its professors. The doctor thinks it must be a variety of the steatopyga, or Boucharian fheep; but what we know for certain, and what makes it highly interesting is, that a valuable trade is carried on with its skin ; as it furnishes the beautiful and high priced blue furs, in such great estimation as a winter drefs for the nobility of Russia, Poland, and other northern countries. It is impofsible to pass over the blue furs of the north, without calling to mind a race of sheep mentioned by Boethius and Sibbald, as inhabiting the island of Rona, and bearing a blue fleece, similar to what is so much prized here. It might be worth the curiosity, if not the interests of your society, to inquire if any traces of the breed remain, on that or any other island of Scotland*. The ingenious writer is here led into a dilemma, from the equivocal meaning of the word blue, in the Scottish dialect of the English language, when applied to animals of this sort. Nothing is more common than to hear country men talk of blue horses; but a horse literally of a blue colour, in the strict meaning of the word, was never I believe seen in this country: at least I know that I have seen thousands of blue horses, as they are called; and these are all literally gray; consisting of mixed hairs black and white: when it has a reddish glance, it is called iron gray. The blue sheep of Scotland are precisely of the same sort. The fleece always consists of a mixture of white and black hairs having a bluish glance; as I have seen thousands of times. On the other hand, the blue furs of Taurica here mentioned or at least some furs which I have seen, are of a bright blue colour strictly so called; exactly of the same cast with the blue cloths of Europe that have been dyed with indigo; and I am convinced these have all been sơ dyed, and that there is no fheep to be found any where that are naturally of that colour: at least I have never seen any such, or heard of any well authenticated fact to make me believe that there are any such. The blue fheep of Rona mentioned by Boethius, I have në A second variety of fheep mentioned by the same authors, bearing a fleece composed of wool and hair, is probably that which has lately drawn so particu. larly the attention of your society for the melioration of British wool, as I understand that the fine woolly down, which seems to surpass every thing of the kind on your side Thibet, is hid by long hair which rises above it, and serves as a covering to the animal whilst deprived of its finer under coat; the festival of the island, must then be at sheep pulling, not at sheep bearing as in England.* doubt were of the same kind with the sheep called blue at this day by the natives, of the kind above described, which are to be found in all the remote parts of Scotland I have visited, where large flocks of theep are not kept, and where of course little attention is paid to the breed. Edit. *There is, I believe, no variety of sheep reared in any part of Britain among which there may n t be found individuals whose fleece contains a mixture of hairs; nor is there any county, or any breed among which individual sheep may not be found that have no hair among the wool at all. In some places however hairy wool is common, and nearly universal, and in other places clean wool is equally general, and a hairy fleece a rarity.-In general, wherever the farmers have been for a long time past attentive to the quality of their wool, the hairy sort is rare, because they have taken care not to breed from that kind; and wherever no attention has been bestowed to the breed, hairy wool is very common. In Shetland, from what I have heard and seen, hairy wool is common for no other reason than that they have hitherto bestowed no attention to their breed of sheep; but fortunately it is not universal, as some fine woolled theep are still to be found there that have no hairs at all among their fleece. From all these facts, I am far from admitting, that bairy wool is a peculiar characteristic mark of distinc. tion of any one breed of sheep whatever, though doubtlefs in some districts, and in some particular flocks in these districts, that kind of eece abounds much more than in others. VOL. XVII. Edit. A third variety of heep mentioned by the same old writers, and so much laughed, at, was one with a yellow fleece, and teeth of the colour of gold. But, Mr Editor, as we find two of the three varieties do exist in nature, it is but fair, before we condemn our venerable authors as fabulous, to see if it is pofsible to account for such a phenomenon from natural causes.* * In all the remote parts of Scotland and the isles, where sheep have been in a great measure neglected, and allowed to breed pro. miscuously, without any selection, there is to be found a prodigious diversity of colours; and among others dun sheep,-or those of a brownish colour tending to an obscure yellow, are not unfrequent. These I have often seen; and these, I have no doubt, are the yellow fheep of Boethius. But a bright yellow sheep, resembling the clear yellow colour obtained on pure white wool by means of weld, I never saw or heard of; and believe none such exist more than of the blue. When any variety of these fheep becomes a favourite with a par ticular person, those of that colour are selected to breed from; and in this way it frequently happens that those of one colour begin to predominate in one place more than another. It is for this reason, and to save the trouble of dying, that the poor people in the Highlands propagate black, and rufset, and brown, and other coloured sheep, more than in any country where the wool is regularly brought to market. In the isle of Man a breed of dun sheep is very common till this and I have been told sheep of the same dun colour, are common in the Crimea. hour; Of all the variety of colours I have seen among these flocks, that of the silver grey, consisting of a mixture of pure white and black filaments is the most beautiful. Where the black is clear and shining, and the white pure, it has a very fine lustre and brilliancy. Mottled sheep, consisting of spots of different colours are to be found in Shetland. At Aislabie park in Yorkshire there is a breed of the mottled sheep which have been preserved there for a long while past as a curiosity. They are descended from a ewe and ram thus marked, that came originally from Andalusia in Spain. Their wool is very coarse Edit |