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just seen exhibit a like diversity in this respect. Where then are we to seek for that law in nature which should determine that the los tribe should be a singular exception to an experience which, in as far as we have yet gone, should point at something like an universal rule? I cannot find it; and hence I conclude, that there is nothing so absurd in the idea that a variety of this class of animals may be found which affords a valuable fleece or fur that may be useful to man, as to make us despise every hint that may point towards the discovery of such an animal. For if man hath derived greater profit from rearing the fur-bearing breeds of sheep than the naked, why shall we suppose that he would not perhaps be equally benefited by a furbearing race of cattle, if such should ever be discovered and generally reared by him?

These arguments are adduced chiefly with a view to guard against that propensity which the mind so naturally feels to reject as suspicious any idea on practical subjects to which it has not been familiarised from its infancy, and to awaken a spirit of unprejudiced inquiry on a very interesting subject, that has been, from accidental circumstances, too long reprefsed. The benefits that Britain has already derived from the introduction of foreign articles, both of the vegetable and the animal kingdom, are inestimable, ́ and should stimulate us to farther exertions of a similar kind. Not to dwell upon the herbs, fruits, and flowers, cultivated in our gardens, most of which are of foreign origin, many of them from very distant regions; nor of the corns sown on our fields, not one of which was probably a native of this country, the

ally reared in this country produce in general a kind of short hard hair, this must be deemed a never-failing characteristic of the whole species; and that the man lied who should pretend to say that a variety of cattle might possibly exist, though unknown to us, which, like the sheep, equally unknown to the inhabitants of Madagascar, may carry a close fleece of long hair or wool that may prove highly beneficial for the purposes of human life? Experience ought long ago to have taught us to be extremely cautious how we pretend to set bounds to the power of the almighty Creator of the universe, who, though he hath endowed man with powers capable of rendering himself the temporary lord of this globe, hath given him that distinguished privilege merely by endowing him alone with the faculty of observing facts as they fall under his view, of comparing them together, and of drawing from these deductions that may prove beneficial to himself. It seems to have been the will of Heaven that man should be more powerfully guarded from falling into the error specified above in regard to the particular which at present claims our attention, than most others; for it will be found, that among the animals which fall most immediately under his observation, the canine species in particular, who are his constant companions through life in every situation on the globe, in no peculiarity do the varieties differ more from each other than in regard to his native kind of clothing, which varies in every pofsible degree from the closest fur, or wool, to the shortest stiff hair. The sheep and the goat, the animals which he could next most easily subdue and

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just seen exhibit a like diversity in this respect. Where then are we to seek for that law in nature which should determine that the bos tribe should be a singular exception to an experience which, in as far as we have yet gone, should point at something like an universal rule? I cannot find it; and hence I conclude, that there is nothing so absurd in the idea that a variety of this class of animals may be found which affords a valuable fleece or fur that may be useful to man, as to make us despise every hint that may point towards the discovery of such an animal. For if man hath derived greater profit from rearing the fur-bearing breeds of sheep than the naked, why shall we suppose that he would not perhaps be equally benefited by a furbearing race of cattle, if such should ever be discovered and generally reared by him?

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These arguments are adduced chiefly with a view to guard against that propensity which the mind so naturally feels to reject as suspicious any idea on practical subjects to which it has not been familiarised from its infancy, and to awaken a spirit of unprejudiced inquiry on a very interesting subject, that has been, from accidental circumstances, too long reprefsed. The benefits that Britain has already derived from the introduction of foreign articles, both of the vegetable and the animal kingdom, are inestimable, and should stimulate us to farther exertions of a similar kind. Not to dwell upon the herbs, fruits, and flowers, cultivated in our gardens, most of which are of foreign origin, many of them from very distant regions; nor of the corns sown on our fields, not one of which was probably a native of this country, the

potatoe alone, which was introduced into common. culture almost in our own day, is an acquisition which would have been cheaply purchased at any price. Among the animal tribes too, the poultry which stock our yards every where, and form the greatest delicacies of our table, are wholly of foreign origin. The horse also, now so peculiarly our own as to obtain the name emphatically of English, is known to have been imported into this island: nor have we reason to believe that the sheep, whose fleece in its raw or manufactured state, has long been the pride of this nation, can be called originally our own. The importation of small animals from distant regions is a matter of little difficulty when compared with those of a larger size, so that fewer opportunities have been given of bringing their respective merits to a comparative trial; and,, of course, prejudices have taken deeper root with regard to them, and erroneous judgments may be more difficult to eradicate. This will leave scope to improvements in future ages, of which we cannot now have a just idea; our businefs is, to prepare the way for others, as our predecessors have done for us; and to add as we go along, the little that falls within our reach, to the sum total of human knowledge.

In respect to covering, hair, fur, or wool, perhaps as great a diversity takes place among the different varieties of the bos tribe as among any of those already enumerated. The shortest and the closest hair I ever observed on any animal of so large a size was that of one of the varieties belonging to the division called Zebu. The hair did not exceed half an inch

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to resemble a brush than any thing else, only that the
hairs, though stiff to a considerable degree, were yet
soft to the feel, and being placed obliquely were very
smooth to the touch when stroaked with the grain,
resembling in this respect a seal's skin, but the hair
was more than twice as thick. As the garden Teazel,
which pofsefses a quality somewhat of a similar kind,
has been found to be of very great utility when em-
ployed as a tool in the manufacture of cloth, it seems
to be by no means impofsible but that this skin in
its native state might be employed very beneficially
for some purposes in life, were it properly adverted to.
If firmly stretched upon a piece of wood, there seems
good reason to believe that it would form a very cheap
kind of brush that might be of great use for many pur-
poses in life, particularly for smoothing hats, and
other things of a similar kind; and a few strokes with
it against the grain would operate powerfully in raising
the particles of dust in cloth without tearing the fila-
ments asunder, the pile of which might then be deli-
cately smoothed by reversing that operation. This
animal was a native of the East Indies, and affords
one of the numerous examples of the futility of that
rule which has been too often implicitly relied upon
as infallible; viz. that hot climates produce thin and
coarse hair. It was one of the most gentle and docile
creatures of the bos tribe that I have ever seen; of
very
considerable size, and great bodily strength. It
had been imported from India by a gentleman in
Yorkshire. This was a bull, who, having had pro-
geny in Britain both by his own breed and by the
native cows of this country, was growing old, and had

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