distinguishing and essential peculiarities of both. Frequent instances have
happened where common ewes have had twins by Ancon rams, when one exhibited
the complete marks and features of the ewe, the other of the ram. The
contrast has been rendered singularly striking, when one short-legged and
one long-legged lamb, produced at a birth, have been seen sucking the dam
at the same time."--_Philosophical Transactions_, 1813, Ft. I. pp. 89,
90.] But when sufficient Ancon sheep were obtained to interbreed with one
another, it was found that the offspring was always pure Ancon. Colonel
Humphreys, in fact, states that he was acquainted with only "one
questionable case of a contrary nature." Here, then, is a remarkable and
well-established instance, not only of a very distinct race being
established _per saltum_, but of that race breeding "true" at once,
and showing no mixed forms, even when crossed with another breed.

By taking care to select Ancons of both sexes, for breeding from, it thus
became easy to establish an extremely well-marked race; so peculiar that,
even when herded with other sheep, it was noted that the Ancons kept
together. And there is every reason to believe that the existence of this
breed might have been indefinitely protracted; but the introduction of the
Merino sheep, which were not only very superior to the Ancons in wool and
meat, but quite as quiet and orderly, led to the complete neglect of the
new breed, so that, in 1813, Colonel Humphreys found it difficult to obtain
the specimen, the skeleton of which was presented to Sir Joseph Banks. We
believe that, for many years, no remnant of it has existed in the United
States.

Gratio Kelleia was not the progenitor of a race of six-fingered men, as
Seth Wright's ram became a nation of Ancon sheep, though the tendency of
the variety to perpetuate itself appears to have been fully as strong in
the one case as in the other. And the reason of the difference is not far