Abstract
MR. LYDEKKER in his monograph on “Wild Oxen, Sheep, and Goats,” published in 1898, stated that the ancestral stock of sheep is not only extinct, “but totally unknown.” But in a book on sheep published in 1912 Lydekker admitted that the mouflon and urial had probably contributed to the making of domestic breeds. As a matter of fact, it has been proved beyond doubt (1) that the first domesticated sheep in Europe (i.e. the sheep introduced by the Alpine race about 7000 B.C.) were derived from a urial (Ovis vignei) not unlike the one now inhabiting the Kapet-Dagh, and (2) that nearly pure descendants of the ancient Neolithic breed still survive on the small uninhabited island of Soay (Sheep Island) near St. Kilda. Further, it is now realised that rams of at least three varieties of Ovis ammon have long been used for maintaining the size and vigour of fatrumped and other breeds of Central Asia. More important still, it has recently been ascertained that the wool forming the inner coat of several of the wild sheep of Asia is longer than in the Soay, and decidedly finer than and quite as white as superfine Australian merino, usually said to be the finest and whitest wool in the world. Crosses between Soay and Southdown sheep yield excellent mutton, and beautiful wool remarkable alike for its strength and quality.
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EWART, J. A Search for Fine Wool. Nature 104, 153 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/104153b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/104153b0
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