[G]The veracity of this charge of indifference, will be doubted by all who have passed over the fertile plains of England, while these fleecy flocks were grazing in the spring, since, insensible indeed must be that breast, which has not felt the tender responses of the bleating ewe, and her distant lamb.
[G]The veracity of this charge of indifference, will be doubted by all who have passed over the fertile plains of England, while these fleecy flocks were grazing in the spring, since, insensible indeed must be that breast, which has not felt the tender responses of the bleating ewe, and her distant lamb.
But this animal, so contemptible in itself, so wanting in sentiment and interior qualities, is to man the most useful of all animals. Of itself it at the same time furnishes us with food and clothing; without reckoning the particular advantages we have from the milk, the fat, the skin, the bowels, the bones, and even the dung. This animal seems to evince that nature hasgiven it nothing but what is for the advantage and convenience of man.
Love, which in all animals is the most general and lively sensation, seems to be the only one which gives any vivacity to the ram. When he feels any such emotions, he becomes petulant, fights, and will sometimes attack even his own shepherd. The ewe, however, even at those times, does not appear more animated; and has only instinct sufficient not to refuse the approaches of the male, to chuse her food and to know her own lamb. Instinct is more certain as it is more mechanical. The young lamb, among a numerous flock, will search and find out its mother, and will seize its teat, without ever being mistaken. It is also said, that sheep are sensible to the pleasures of musick; that they brouze with more assiduity, are better in health, and fatten sooner when they hear the shepherd’s pipe; but it appears more probable that music serves to amuse the shepherd, and that it is to this solitary, idle life, that we owe the origin of the art.
These animals, whose understandings are so simple, are also of a very weak constitution. They cannot walk long; travelling weakens and exhausts them; and when they run, theypant and are soon out of breath. The great heat of the sun, is as disagreeable to them, as too much moisture, cold, or snow. They are subject to many disorders, the greatest part of which are contagious. Superabundance of fat sometimes kills them, and always prevents the ewes from having young. They suffer a great deal in breeding, have frequent abortions and require more care than any other domestic animal.[H]
[H]There appears in the text a degree of unusual asperity against this harmless animal, and all its imperfections seem pictured in glaring colours, but in this, as well as in several other particulars, some exaggeration is adopted, since scarce any domestic animal, at the time of bringing forth, requires less assistance than the ewe does in general.
[H]There appears in the text a degree of unusual asperity against this harmless animal, and all its imperfections seem pictured in glaring colours, but in this, as well as in several other particulars, some exaggeration is adopted, since scarce any domestic animal, at the time of bringing forth, requires less assistance than the ewe does in general.
When the ewe is near her time, she should be taken from the rest of the flock, and watched in order to be near to help her in delivery. The lamb frequently presents itself cross-ways, or by the feet; and, in this case, the mother’s life is in danger if she is not assisted. As soon as she is delivered, the lamb should be lifted on its feet, and the milk drawn out of the mother’s teats; this first milk being bad would do much hurt to the lamb, and therefore it is necessary to stay till the teats are filled again, before it is suffered to suck. The lamb is kept warm, and shut up for two or three days with the mother,that it may learn to know her. For a few days, in order to re-establish the strength of the ewe, she should be fed with hay, barley wetted, or bran mixed with a little salt. The water she drinks should be luke-warm, with some wheat or bean flour, or millet put into it. In four or five days she may again be used, by degrees, to her common manner of living, and may be put amongst the others, only observing not to take her too far, lest it should overheat her milk. Some time after, when the lamb begins to have strength, and to skip about, it may, with safety, be suffered to follow its mother into the fields.
It is usual to send those lambs which appear weak to the butcher, and to preserve those which are the largest, are most vigorous, and have the thickest fleece; the first lambs are scarcely ever so good as those of the following litters. If those lambs are wanted to be reared which are brought forth in October, November December, January, or February, they are kept in the stable, and only let out to suck mornings and evenings, until the beginning of April. Some time before letting them out they should daily have a little grass, for the purpose of accustoming them by degrees to their new nourishment. They may be weaned as earlyas a month old, but it is better to let them suck for six weeks or two months. Lambs which are all white, and without spots, are always preferred because white wool always produces the best price. Lambs should not be castrated before they are five or six months old at the earliest, and then the operation should be performed when the weather is moderate, either in spring or autumn: it is done two ways, either by incision, or by destroying the vessels, which terminate in them, by a tight ligature. Castration makes lambs sick and melancholy, and to prevent the disgust which generally succeeds, they should have bran given them mixed with a little salt for two or three days.
At a year old, rams, ewes, and wedders, lose the two fore teeth of the under jaw; they have no incisive ones in the upper; six months after the two neighbouring teeth fall out also; at three years of age they are all replaced, are then tolerably even and pretty white, but as the animal increases in years they become uneven and black. The age of the ram is also known by his horns; they appear the first year, and sometimes at his birth, and a ring is added to them every year after as long as he lives. In general the ewes have no horns, but in their places two bony prominences; nor withstandingthere are some which have two and even four horns. These ewes are like the others; their horns are five or six inches long, but less twisted than those of the ram, and when they have four, the two anterior are shorter than the other two. The ram is capable of generating at eighteen months, and the ewe to produce at a year old; but it is better not to couple them before the ram is three and the ewe two; as before that period the young will be feeble and weak, which indeed is generally the case with their first productions. One ram is sufficient to attend 25 or 30 ewes; he should be chosen from the strongest and handsomest of his species; he should have horns, for there are some rams in our climate which are without, but they are less vigorous, and less proper for propagation[I]. A good and handsome ram should have a large thick head, a wide forehead, large black eyes, broad nose, big ears, thick neck, long high body, large loins and crupper, and a long tail. The best rams are the white ones, well covered with wool on the belly, the tail, the head, the ears, and quite up to the eyes. Ewes which have wool in the greatest abundance, mostbushy, whitest, and most silky, are the best for propagation; especially if they are large, have thick necks, and walk nimbly. It has also been remarked, that those which are rather lean than fat are the most successful breeders.
[I]This does not always hold good, since the Lincoln sheep are without horns, and are at the same time as fine and as large as any in England.
[I]This does not always hold good, since the Lincoln sheep are without horns, and are at the same time as fine and as large as any in England.
The ewes are commonly in season from the beginning of November to the end of April; but they conceive at any time if supplied with stimulating food, such as salted water, and bread made of hemp-seed. The ewes are allowed to go with the ram two or three times, after which they are separated from him; he invariably attaches himself to the oldest ewes, and despises the young ones. During the coupling season great care must be taken not to expose the ewes to rains or storms, for moisture prevents conception, and a clap of thunder often produces an abortion. A day or two after copulation they may return to their usual mode of living, for if the salted water, hempen bread, and other hot foods are continued, it will prevent their produce. They carry their young five months, and drop them at the beginning of the sixth. They commonly bring forth but one lamb, though they sometimes have two: in warm climates they produce twice a year, but in France, and those which are colder, never more than once. Theram is admitted to the ewes about the end of July, or beginning of August, for the purpose of having lambs in January; in September, October, and November, he is given to a greater number, from which we have plenty of lambs in February, March, and April; there are also quantities in May, June, July, August, and September; and it is only in October, November, and December, that they are scarce. The ewes have milk for six or seven months; it is tolerable nourishment for children and country people, and makes very good cheese, especially when mixed with cows’ milk. The time for milking the ewes is just before they go into the fields, or immediately after their return. In summer they may be milked twice a day, and once in winter.
Ewes fatten when they are with young, because they then eat more than at any other time. As they often hurt themselves they have frequent abortions, sometimes become barren, and often bring forth monsters; nevertheless, if they are well taken care of, they will produce through life; that is for ten or twelve years, though they commonly begin to grow old and useless by the time they are seven or eight. The ram lives till he is twelve or fourteen years old, but is unfit for propagation,after he is eight. He should then be castrated, and fattened with the old ewes. The flesh of the ram is always ill-tasted, that of the ewe insipid, while that of the wedder is the most succulent and best of our common meat.
Those who wish to form a flock with a view to profit, buy ewes and wedders from the age of eighteen months to two years, an hundred of which may be put under the care of one shepherd, and if he is careful and assisted by a good dog, he will lose but few. When he conducts them to the field he should always go first, accustom them to the sound of his voice, to follow him without going aside among the corn, vines, and cultivated lands, where they do considerable damage. Hills, or plains above hills, afford them the best and most agreeable pasture, and they should never be suffered to brouze in low and marshy grounds. In winter they should be fed in the stable on bran, turnips, hay, straw, lucerne, saintfoine, leaves of ash, elm, &c. and unless the weather is very bad they should be allowed to go out every day for the sake of exercise. In the cold season they should not be taken to the fields before ten o’clock in the morning, and remain for four or five hours; they should then be made to drink, and about three o’clock in the afternoonbe reconducted home. In spring and autumn, on the contrary, they should be taken out as soon as the sun has dissipated the moisture and hoar frost, and not taken back again till near sun-set. It is sufficient in these two seasons if they drink once a day, and that just before they return to the stable, where there must always be forage for them, though in a smaller quantity than during winter. It is in summer alone that they ought to find all their food in the fields, where they should then be conducted twice a day, and taken twice to drink; they should be led out in the morning while the dew is on the ground, allowed to feed four or five hours, and after drinking led back to the fold, or some shady place. About three or four o’clock in the afternoon, when the excessive heat begins to diminish, they may be again taken into the fields and allowed to stay until the night comes on; and were it not for the danger of the wolf, it would be better to leave them out all night as they do in England, which would make them more vigorous and healthy. As violent heat greatly incommodes them, and the rays of the sun will give them the vertigo, they should always be kept, when brouzing, with their heads from the sun, so that their bodies may form a kind of shade.And it is also very necessary, to preserve their wool, that they should not be suffered to feed among thorns, briars, or bristles.
In dry and high grounds, where wild thyme and other odoriferous plants abound, the flesh of the sheep is of a much better quality than when fed on low plains and humid valleys; unless near the sea coast, where all the herbage having imbibed a degree of saltness, it renders the mutton superior to that fed on any other pasture; it gives also a pleasing flavour to the milk, and adds to its quantity. Nothing is more pleasing to the taste of these animals than salt, nor is there any thing more salutary for them when given in moderation; in some places they put a bag of salt, or salt-stone, into the sheep-fold, the which they will all lick by turns.
Every year those grown of a proper age to fatten should be picked out of the flock, as they require a different treatment. If in summer, they should be taken to the field before sun-rise that they may feed on the grass while the dew remains upon it. Nothing contributes more to fatten sheep than water taken in great quantities, and nothing retards it more than the heat of the sun; for which reason they should be taken into the shade by nine o’clock in themorning before the violent heat comes on, and a little salt should be given them to excite their appetite for water. About four o’clock in the afternoon they should be led out again to fresh and moist pastures. This care pursued for two or three months is sufficient to make them fleshy and fat; but this fat, which originates from the great quantities of water drank by the animal, is only a kind of pursy swelling, and would soon occasion the rot; it is therefore necessary to kill them immediately when they acquire this false fat: even their flesh, instead of having become firm and juicy, is frequently the more flat and insipid. If we would have good mutton, besides feeding them in the dew and giving them plenty of water, it is necessary they should have more succulent food than grass. In winter, nay in all seasons, they may be fattened by keeping them in stables and feeding them with the flour of barley, oats, wheat, beans, &c. mixed with salt to make them drink more frequently. But whatever mode is followed, it should be done quickly, and the sheep should be killed immediately, for they cannot be fattened twice, and almost all die with diseases of the liver.
We frequently find worms in the livers of animals; a description of those found in sheepand oxen is contained in the Journal des Savans of 1668, and in the German Ephimerides. It was thought that these worms were peculiar to animals who chew the cud, but M. Dauberton discovered some in the liver of an ass, and it is probable they might be found in those of many other animals. It has also been said that butterflies are sometimes found in the livers of sheep; and in confirmation of this M. Rouillé favoured me with a letter of M. Gachet de Beaufort, containing the following observations: “It has long been remarked, that our Alpine wedders frequently lose their flesh on a sudden; that their eyes turn white and gummy, that their blood becomes serous, having scarcely any red globules, their tongues parched, and their noses stuffed with a yellow purulent mucus. It is true this does not affect the appetite of the animal, but makes him extremely weak and terminates in his death. From repeated dissections it has been discovered, that animals so affected have always butterflies in their livers, which butterflies are white, and furnished with wings; their heads are nearly oval, hairy, and about the size of those of the silk-worm fly. Above seventy which I squeezed out of the two holes convinced me of the truth of this fact.” Fromthis description of M. Beaufort I cannot admit myself as positively convinced of their being butterflies, because they have so near a resemblance to the common worms found in the livers of sheep, which are flat, broad, and of so singular a figure, as to appear at first rather leaves than worms.
It is customary for sheep to be shorn every year; and in warm countries where they apprehend no danger from leaving the animal quite bare, they do not shear the wool, but tear it off, and those frequently find a sufficiency to have two crops in a year. In France, and in colder climates, the fleece is shorn only once a year, and then a part of the wool is permitted to remain by way of preserving the animal from the intemperance of the weather. This operation is performed in the month of May, after the sheep have been well washed to render the wool as clean as possible. The month of April is too cold, and if delayed to July, there would not be sufficient time for the wool to grow to preserve them from the cold of the following winter. The wool of the wedder is generally better, and in greater abundance than that of the ewe or ram; that on the neck and top of the back, is much superior to that on the thighs, belly, tail, &c. and thattaken from the bodies of the dead, or diseased animals, is by much the worst. White wool is preferable to grey, brown, or black, because in dying it will take any colour, and that which is smooth and sleek is better than the curled; it is even said, that sheep whose wool is curled are not so good as the others. Folding sheep is of great advantage to the land, and when it is wished to improve any by this means, the ground must be inclosed, and the flock shut in every night during the summer; the dung, urine, and heat of the animals, will soon enrich the most exhausted, cold, and infertile grounds. An hundred sheep in one summer will fertilize eight acres of land for six years.
The ancients have remarked that all animals which chew the cud have suet, but this is only true with the sheep and goat, and that of the sheep is more abundant, whiter, drier, and better than that of any other. Suet differs materially from fat or grease, as the latter remains soft, but the former hardens in cooling. The suet amasses in the greatest quantities about the kidneys, and there is always more about the left than the right; there is also a great deal in the epiploon, and about the intestines, but that is not near so firm and good as that of the kidneys, tail, and other parts of the body.Sheep have no other fat than suet, and this matter is so predominant in their bodies, that their flesh is covered with it; even their blood contains a considerable quantity, and their semen is so loaded with it, as to have a different appearance from that of any other animal. That of man, the dog, horse, ass, and probably of all animals which have not suet, liquefies by cold, and becomes more and more fluid from the moment it comes out of the body; but that of the ram, goat, and perhaps of all animals which have suet, hardens, and loses all its fluidity with its heat. I discovered these differences when examining their different liquors with the microscope. That of the ram fixes a few moments after it is out of the body, and in order to discover the living organic molecules, of which it contains great numbers, heat must be applied to keep it in a state of fluidity.
The flavour of the flesh, the fineness of the wool, the quantity of the suet, and even the size of the sheep, differ greatly in different countries. At Berri, in France, they abound; those of the environs of Beauvoise, and some other parts of Normandy, are the fattest, and have the greatest quantity of suet. They are very good in Burgundy; but the best are thosewhich are fed upon the downs in our maritime provinces. The wool of Italy, Spain, and England is finer than the wool of France. In Poitou, Provence, in the environs of Bayonne, and several other parts of France, there is some sheep which appear to be of a foreign race; they are larger, stronger, and have a greater quantity of wool than those of the common breed. They are also more prolific, generally producing two lambs at a time. The rams of this breed engender with the common ewes and produce an intermediate race. In Italy and Spain there is a great variety in their races of sheep, but they should all be regarded as forming one species with our common sheep, which though so numerous does not extend beyond Europe. Those animals with large broad tails, so common in Asia and Africa, and which travellers have given the name of Barbary sheep, appear to be of different species from our common sheep, as well as from the pacos and lama of America.
Engraved for Barr’s Buffon.
Fig. 24.Wallachian Ram.
Fig. 25.Wallachian Ram.
White wool being most esteemed, those lambs which are black or spotted are commonly led to slaughter. There are some places however where almost all the sheep are black; and white rams and ewes will frequently produce spotted lambs. In France there are only white, black, and spotted; in Spain there is a reddish kind, and in Scotland there are some of a yellow colour; but these varieties in colour are more accidental than the difference and variety of the breed, which notwithstanding only happens from the influence of climate and the difference of nourishment.
SUPPLEMENT.
I was favoured with the drawings of two Wallachian Sheep[J](fig. 24, 25.) by Mr. Colinson a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, whose horns are very different from ours, but I was never able to discover whether they were of the ordinary kind in Walachia or some accidental variety.
[J]The annexed representations were taken from two of these living animals, the property of Mr. Clark; and as the likeness was strongly attended to, will be found more correct than the drawings copied in the works of our author.
[J]The annexed representations were taken from two of these living animals, the property of Mr. Clark; and as the likeness was strongly attended to, will be found more correct than the drawings copied in the works of our author.
In Denmark, Norway, and in the northern part of Europe, the sheep are very indifferent; and it is customary there to improve the breed, to have rams frequently imported from England.In the islands near Norway the sheep are constantly left in the fields, and they are much larger and produce better wool than those who are attended by men. Pontopiddan asserts that those sheep which live in perfect liberty always sleep on that side of the island from whence the wind will blow the next day, and this is constantly attended to by the mariners.
The Iceland sheep have larger and thicker horns than the common sheep of these climates; some of them have four or five horns, but this is not common, and when they find any so ornamented, they are sent to Copenhagen and sold at a high price as great rarities.
THE GOAT.
Though the species of animals are all separated by an interval which Nature cannot overleap, yet some resemble others in so many respects that there seems only a necessary space to draw a line of separation. When we compare these neighbouring species, and consider them relatively to ourselves, some appear to beof the greatest utility, and others seem to be only auxiliary species, which might in many respects serve in the place of the former. Thus the ass might nearly supply the place of the horse, and the goat that of the sheep. The goat, like the sheep, furnishes both milk and suet in great abundance. Their hair, though coarser than wool, can serve the purpose of making very good cloth; their skins are more valuable than those of the sheep; and the flesh of a young kid nearly resembles that of lamb. These auxiliary species are wilder and more robust than the principals. The ass and the goat do not require near so much care as the horse and the sheep, for they every where find means of support, and browze equally on the most coarse as on the most delicate plants; they are less affected by the influence of the climate, and can do better without the aid of man; the less dependence they have on us, the more they seem to belong to Nature; and instead of considering these subordinate species as degenerations of the principal species; instead of looking on the ass as a degenerated horse; it might with more reason be said, the horse is an ass brought to perfection, and that the sheep is a more delicate kind of goat, which we have taken care of, brought to perfection,and propagated for our own use; and, in general, that the most perfect species, especially among domestic animals, take their origin from those wild and less perfect kinds which resemble them the most, as the powers of Nature are greatly augmented when united to those of man.
Although the goat is a distinct species, and possibly further removed from the sheep than the ass is from the horse, yet the buck will as willingly couple with the ewe as the he-ass with the mare; the ram with the she-goat in the same manner as the horse with the she-ass. But though these couplings happen very frequently, and are sometimes prolific, yet no intermediate species has been formed between the goat and the sheep. The two species are distinct, remaining at the same distance from each other; no change has been effected by the intermixture, no new or middle race has arisen therefrom; at most they have only produced individual differences, which have no influence on the unity of each primitive species, but, on the contrary, confirm the reality of their different characteristics.
There are, however, many cases in which we cannot distinguish these characters, nor pronounce on their differences with certainty:there are others in which we are obliged to suspend our opinions, and in a great number of others we have not the smallest ray of light for our guide; for, independent of the uncertainty arising from the contrariety of assertions respecting recorded facts, independent of the doubts resulting from the inaccuracy of those who have endeavoured to observe Nature, the greatest obstacle to the advancement of knowledge, is our ignorance of a great number of effects which time has not disclosed to us, and which can only be revealed to posterity by experience, and the most accurate observations; in the mean time we stray in darkness, perplexed between prejudices and probabilities, ignorant even of possibilities, and every moment confounding the opinions of men with the acts of Nature. Examples are in abundance; but, without quitting our subject, we know that the goat and the sheep couple together; though we are still to learn whether the mule from this commixture is sterile or fruitful. We are apt to conclude that mules in general, are barren, because those produced from the he-ass and mare, or the horse and she-ass, are sterile. But this opinion may have no foundation, since the ancients positively assert, that the mule produces at seven yearsold and that it can produce with the mare; they say also that the she-mule is capable of conception, but that she cannot bring her fruit to perfection. It is necessary therefore, to destroy or confirm the truth of these facts, since they obscure the real distinction of animals and the theory of their generation; and though we know distinctly the species of all the animals which surround us, yet we are ignorant what might be produced by an intermixture among themselves, or with foreign animals. We are but ill informed of the jumar, an animal said to be the produce of a cow and an ass, or a mare and a bull. We are also ignorant whether the zebra would not produce with the horse or the ass, or the broad-tailed Barbary ram with a common ewe; whether the chamois goat be any thing more than a common goat in a wild state, or whether an intermixture would not form an intermediate race; whether the monkeys are of different species, or, like that of the dog, it is one and the same, but varied by a great number of different breeds; whether the dog can produce with the fox and the wolf, the stag with the cow, &c. Our ignorance in most of these cases is almost invincible, and the experiments which would decide them require more time, care, and expence,than the life and fortune of most men can permit.
On the determination of these facts, however, depends our knowledge of animals, the exact distinction of their species, the intelligence of their genuine history and manner of treating them. But since we are deprived of knowledge so necessary, since it is not possible to proceed upon positive facts, we cannot do better than go step by step, to consider each animal individually, to look on those as different species who do not procreate together, and to write their history in separate articles, reserving for ourselves a power to unite or separate, as we shall acquire a more perfect knowledge from our own experience, or from that of others.
It is for this reason that though there are many animals which resemble the sheep and goat, we have taken notice of only the domestic kinds. We are ignorant whether foreign kinds would intermix and form new races with our common species; we are therefore authorized to consider them as distinct species, till it can be proved that these foreign kinds can procreate with the common and produce fertile individuals: this degree alone constituting the realityof what should be denominated species both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms.
The goat has naturally more sagacity than the sheep and can shift better for itself. He comes to man of himself and is easily familiarized; he is sensible of caresses, and capable of much attachment; he is more strong, light, agile, and less timid than the sheep; he is lively, capricious and lascivious, and it requires much trouble to conduct them into flocks. They are fond of straying into solitude, of climbing steep and rugged places, to stand and even to sleep on the tops of rocks or brinks of precipices. The female seeks the male with eagerness and ardour; she is robust and easily supported, eating almost all kinds of herbs and very few disagreeing with her. The bodily temperament, which in all animals has great influence on the dispositions, does not seem to differ essentially in the goat from that of the sheep. The interior organization of these two species of animals is almost entirely the same; they are fed, grow, and multiply in the same manner, and have the same diseases, except a few to which the goat is not subject. The goat is not, like the sheep, affected with too great a degree of heat, but voluntarily exposes himself to the liveliestrays of the sun, and sleeps therein without suffering a vertigo, or any other inconvenience. He is not alarmed by rains or storms, but appears sensible of the rigours of cold. The exterior movements, as already remarked, depend less on the conformation of the body than on the strength and variety of their sensations, for which reason they are more lively and less regular in the goat than in the sheep. The inconstancy of his disposition is strongly marked by the irregularity of his actions; he walks, stops short, runs, skips, jumps, advances, retreats, shews and conceals himself, or flies off, and all this from mere caprice, and without any other cause than what arises from the whimsicality of his temper; the suppleness of his organs and strength, and nervousness of his frame, are scarcely sufficient to support the petulance and rapidity of his natural motions.
That these animals are naturally fond of men, and that even in uninhabited countries they betray no savage dispositions, the following anecdote is a strong confirmation. In 1698, an English vessel having put into harbour at the island of Bonavista, two negroes went on board, and offered the captain as many goats as he chose to carry away. He expressing a surprise at this offer, the negroes informed himthere were only twelve persons on the island, and that the goats multiplied so fast as to become exceedingly troublesome, for instead of being hard to be caught, they followed them about with a degree of obstinacy, like other domestic animals.
The male (fig. 26) goat is capable of engendering at a year, and the female at seven months old; but the fruits of this early coupling are generally weak and defective, and therefore they are commonly restrained until they are eighteen months or two years. The he-goat is handsome, vigorous, and ardent; and one is sufficient to accompany 150 females for two or three months; but this ardour, which soon consumes him, does not last more than three or four years, and by the age of five or six, he becomes aged and enervated. Therefore, in choosing a male for propagation, he should be large, handsome, and about two years old; his neck should be short and thick, his head light, his ears hanging down, his thighs thick, his legs firm, his hair black, thick and soft, his beard long and bushy. The choice of the female (fig. 27) is of less importance, only observing that those with large bodies, thick thighs, who walk light, have large udders, and soft bushy hair, are the most preferable. They are usually in season in September, October, and November, though they will couple and bring forth at all times. They retain, however, much surer in autumn; and the months of October and November are preferred, because the grass will be young and tender when the kids begin to eat. They go about five months with young and bring forth at the beginning of the sixth; they suckle their young a month or five weeks; so that about six and twenty weeks may be reckoned from the time of their coupling to the kids first beginning to feed on pasture.
Engraved for Barr’s Buffon
Fig. 27She Goat
Fig. 26He Goat
When kept among sheep they do not mix with them, but always precede the flock. They prefer feeding separately, are fond of getting upon the tops of hills, and even upon the most steep and craggy parts of the mountains. They find a sufficiency of food on heaths, barren and uncultivated grounds. Great attention is necessary to keep them from corn, vines, and young plantations as they are great destroyers, and eat with avidity the tender barks, and young shoots of trees, and thus prove fatal to their growth. They avoid humid and marshy fields, or rich pastures: they are seldom kept on flat lands, because it does not agree with them, and it makes their flesh ill-tasted. Inmost warm climates goats are raised in great numbers and never put into the stables. In France they would perish if not preserved from the inclemency of the winter. It is not necessary to give them litter in the summer, though absolutely so in winter; and as all moisture is very hurtful to them they should never be suffered to lie upon their own dung. They should be taken out into the fields very early in the morning, while the dew is on the grass, which, though hurtful to sheep, is very salutary for goats. As they are untractable and wandering animals, the most active and robust man cannot manage more than fifty of them. They should never be suffered to go out during snow or hoar frost, but be kept in the stable, and fed with herbage, small branches of trees gathered in autumn, or on cabbages, turnips, and other roots. The more they eat, the greater is their quantity of milk; to increase and preserve their milk still more, they are made to drink a great deal, and they mix sometimes a little nitre or salt in their water. They may be milked in fifteen days after they have brought forth, and will continue to give a considerable quantity twice a day for four or five months.
The female produces one kid, sometimestwo, very rarely three, and never more than four; she continues to breed from one year or eighteen months, until she is seven years of age. The he-goat will propagate as long, and perhaps longer if proper care is taken of him; but he commonly becomes useless at about five. He is then sent to fatten among the old goats, and castrated kids which have been emasculated at six months old, to render their flesh more juicy and tender. They are fattened with great care, in the same manner as wethers, but they are never so good, excepting in very warm climates, where mutton is always ill-tasted. The strong smell of the goat does not proceed from his flesh but his skin. These animals are not permitted to grow old, or perhaps they might live to ten or twelve years; but it is usual to kill them as soon as they cease to multiply, because the older they are the worse is their flesh. Both male and female goats have horns, with a very few exceptions; they vary very much in the colour of their hair: it is said that those which are white, and have no horns, give the most milk, and that the black ones are the strongest. Though they cost very little for their food they produce a considerable profit; their flesh, tallow, hair, and skin, are all valuable commodities. Theirmilk is more wholesome and better than that of the sheep; it is used in medicine, curdles easily, and makes very good cheese. The females will allow themselves to be suckled by young children, for whom their milk is excellent nourishment. Like cows and sheep, they are sucked by the viper, and also by a bird, called in France, the goat-sucker, which fastens to their teats during the night, and, as some say, makes them lose their milk for ever after.
Goats have no incisive teeth in the upper jaw; those in the under fall out, and are replaced in the same time and manner as those of the sheep. Their age may be ascertained by the knobs in their horns, and their teeth. The number of teeth in the female goats is not always the same, but they usually have fewer than the male, whose hair is also more rough, and who has the beard and horns longer. These animals, like the ox and sheep, have four stomachs, and chew the cud. Their species is more generally diffused than that of sheep, and goats similar to ours are found in many parts of the world; only in Guinea, and other warm climates they are smaller, and in Muscovy and the more northern regions, they are larger. The goats of Angora and Syria, with earshanging down, are of the same species with ours, as they intermix together, and will produce in these climates: the males have horns almost as long as the common kind, but their directions are very different, they are extended horizontally from each side of the head, and form spirals somewhat like a screw. The horns of the female are short, they bend backwards, then turn down, and their points come forward so as nearly to approach their eyes; but the directions of these sometimes vary. These descriptions are from a male and female goat which I have seen. Like most Syrian animals, their hair was very long and thick, and so fine that stuffs have been made of it almost as handsome and glossy as our silks.
SUPPLEMENT.
Pontoppidan says, that goats abound in Norway, and that more than 80,000 raw hides are annually exported from Bergen alone, besides those which are dressed. But they seem peculiarly calculated for this country, asthey search for their food upon high and rugged mountains, are very courageous, and so far from fearing the wolf, will even assist the dogs in repelling their attacks upon the flock.
THE SWINE, THE HOG OF SIAM, AND THE WILD BOAR.
I shall treat of these three at the same time, because they form but one species. The one is wild, and the other two the same animal only domestic; and though they are different in some external marks, and perhaps in some of their habits, yet these differences are not very essential, but relate merely to their condition: they are not much changed by their domestic state; they will intermix and produce fertile individuals; which is the only character that constitutes a distinct and permanent species.
It is singular in these animals that their species seem to be entirely distinct by itself, and not connected with any other, which may be considered as principal or accessory, like that of the horse with the ass, or the goat with the sheep; nor is it subject to a variety of races like the dog; it participates of many species, yet essentially differs from all. Let those who would circumscribe the immensity of nature into narrow systems, attend to this animal, and they will find it surmounts their methodical arrangements. In its extremities it has no resemblance to whole-hoofed animals, being rather cloven-hoofed, and yet it does not resemble them fairly, because though it appears to have but two toes, yet it has four concealed within; nor does the hog resemble those which have the toes separated, since he walks only on two toes, and the other two are neither so placed, nor extended sufficiently, to be made use of in that respect. Shall we consider this as an error in nature, and that these two toes so concealed ought not to be reckoned? If so, it should be remembered that this error is constant: that besides, the other bones of the feet do not resemble cloven-footed animals, and that there are striking differences in many other respects, for the latter have horns and no incisiveteeth in the upper jaw, they have four stomachs, chew the cud, &c. while the hog, on the contrary, has no horns, but one stomach, does not chew the cud, and has cutting teeth both above and below; thus it is evident, he neither belongs to the species of hoofed or cloven-footed animals, and with as little propriety can he be ranked among the web-footed animals since he differs from them not only in the extremities of the feet, but in the teeth, stomach, intestines, and internal parts of generation. All that can be said is, that in some respects he forms the shade between the whole and cloven-footed animals, and in others between the cloven-footed and digitated animals; for he differs less from the whole-hoofed quadrupeds in the form and number of his teeth than from others; he also resembles them in the length of his jaw, and, like them, has but one stomach; but by an appendage annexed to it, as well as by the position of the intestines, he seems nearly to approach the cloven-footed animals, or those who chew the cud. He likewise resembles them in the external parts of generation, and at the same time in the make of his legs, habits of body, number of young, he approaches very near to the digitated quadrupeds.
Aristotle was the first who divided quadrupeds into whole-hoofed, cloven-footed, and digitated, and he allows, that the hog is of an ambiguous species; but the only reason he gives is, that in Illyria, Pæonia, and some other places there are hogs with whole hoofs. This animal is also a kind of exception to the two general rules of nature, namely, that the larger the animals the less young they produce, and that digitated animals are the most prolific. The hog, though far above the middling size, produces more than any other quadruped. By this fertility, as well as by the formation of the ovary of the female, it even seems to form the extremity of the viviparous species, and to approach the oviparous. In short, the hog seems to be of an equivocal nature, or rather appears so to those who suppose the hypothetical order of their ideas to be the same as the common order of Nature, and who only perceive, in the infinite chain of beings, some apparent points to which they would refer every natural occurrence.
It is not by circumscribing the sphere of Nature that we can become perfectly acquainted with her: we cannot judge of her by making her act with our particular views; nor is it by ascribing our ideas to her Author that we canpenetrate into His designs. Instead of confining and limiting the powers of Nature, we should extend them to immensity; we ought to look on nothing as impossible, but that every thing which may be, really has existence. Ambiguous species, and irregular productions, would then cease to surprise, and appear equally as necessary as others in the infinite order of things; they fill up the intervals, form the immediate points, and mark the extremities of the chain. These beings present to the human understanding curious examples, where Nature, appearing to act less conformably to herself, makes a greater display of her powers, and enables us to trace singular characters, which indicate that her designs are more general than our confined views, and that if she does nothing in vain, neither is she regulated by the designs we attribute to her.
Should we not reflect on this singular conformation of the hog? He appears not to have been formed on an original and perfect plan, since he is composed of parts peculiar to other animals, and has evidently parts of which he makes no use, particularly the toes above described, notwithstanding the bones are perfectly formed. Nature is therefore far from being influenced by final causes in the conformationof beings; why may she not sometimes give redundant parts, since she so often withholds those which are essential? How many animals are deficient both in senses and members? Why should we suppose, that in each individual every part is useful to others, and necessary to the whole? Is it not sufficient that they are found together, that they are not hurtful, can grow without hindrance, and unfold without obliterating each other? All things which are not hostile enough to destroy each other certainly can subsist together; and perhaps there are, in most beings, fewer relative, useful, or necessary parts, than those which are indifferent, useless, or superabundant; but as we would always refer things to a certain end, when parts have no apparent uses, we either suppose they have hidden ones, or invent relations which have no foundation, and only serve to lead us into errors. We do not consider that we alter the philosophy, and change the sense of the object, when instead of inquiring how Nature acts, we endeavour to divine the end and cause of her acting. This general prejudice, which is too frequently adopted, serves only to cover our ignorance, and is both useless and opposite to the inquiry after, and discovery of, the effects of Nature.Without quitting our subject we can give other examples, where the intentions we so vainly ascribe to Nature are evidently contradicted. It is said the phalanges are formed merely to produce fingers or toes, yet in the hog they are useless, since they do not form toes which the animal can make any advantage of; and in cloven-footed animals there are small bones which do not form phalanges.[K]If then it was the design of Nature to produce toes, it is evident that in the hog she has not more than half executed her purpose, and in the others she has scarcely began it.