Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/811

Rh S H E S H E 785 out on each side, far away from the animal's head, instead of curl- ing round nearly in the same plane, as in most of the allied species. A very similar if not identical species from the same origin, in which the horns retain their more normal development, has received the name of 0. karclini. Eastward and northward is found the argali (0. ammon), with a wide and not very well determined range. Still further north, in the Stanovoi Mountains and Kamchatka, is 0. nivicola, and away on the other side of Behring's Strait, in the Rocky Mountains and adjacent high lands of western North America, is the " bighorn " or mountain sheep (0. montuna), the only one of the genus found in that continent and indeed except the bison, the musk-ox (Ovibos), mountain goat (Aploccras), and the prongbuck (Antilocapra) the only hollow- horned ruminant, being like the rest obviously a straggler from the cradle of its race. Turning southward from the point from which we started, and still a little to the east, in Nepal and Little Tibet, is 0. hodgsoni, a species with large and strongly curved horns, and another with smaller and more spreading horns, the burrhel, 0. nahoor. Passing in a south-westerly direction we find a series of smaller forms, 0. vigiiei of Ladak, 0. cycloceros of northern India, Persia, and Baluchistan, 0. gmelini of Asia Minor, 0. ophion, confined to the elevated pine-clad Troodos Mountains of the island of Cyprus, and said at the time of the British occupation in 1878 to have been reduced to a flock of about twenty-five individuals, and 0. musimon, the moufflon of Corsica and Sardinia (see figure), believed to have been formerly also a native of Spain. Lastly, we have the somewhat aberrant, goat-like aoudad, 0. tragelctjihus, of the great mountain ranges of North Africa. We thus find that sheep are essentially inhabitants of high mountainous parts of the world, for dwelling among which their wonderful powers of climbing and leaping give them special advantages. No species frequent by choice either level deserts, open plains, dense forests, or swamps. By far the greater munber of species are inhabitants of the continent of Asia, one or perhaps two extending into North America, one into Southern Europe, and one into North Africa. No wild sheep occurs in any other part of the world, unless the so called musk-ox (Ovibos moschatus) of the Arctic regions, the nearest existing ally to the true sheep, may be considered as one. Geologically speaking, sheep appear to be very modern animals, or perhaps it would be safer to say that no remains that can be with certainty referred to the genus have been met with in the hitherto explored true Tertiary beds, which have yielded such abundant modifications of antelopes and deer. They are apparently not indigenous in the British Isles, but were probably introduced by man from the East in prehistoric times. (W. H. F.) SHEEPSHEAD is the name of one of the largest species of the genus Sargus, marine fishes known on the coasts of southern Europe as " sargo " or " saragu." These fishes possess two kinds of teeth : one, broad and flat, like incisors, occupying in a single series the front of the jaws ; Sheepshead. the other, semiglobular and molar-like, arranged in several series on the sides of the jaws. For the systematic posi- tion of the genus, see vol. xii. p. 689. The sheepshead, Sargus ovis, occurs in abundance on the Atlantic coasts of the United States, from Cape Cod to Florida, and is one of the most valued food-fishes of North America. It is said to attain to a length of 30 inches and a weight of 15 pounds. Its food consists of shellfish, which it detaches with its incisors from the base to which they are fixed, crushing them with its powerful molars. It may be dis- tinguished from some other allied species occurring in the same seas by the presence of seven or eight dark cross- bands traversing the body, by a recumbent spine in front of the dorsal fin, by twelve spines and as many rays of the dorsal and ten rays of the anal fin, and by forty-six scales along the lateral line. The term " sheepshead " is also given in some parts of North America to a very different fish, a freshwater Sciaenoid, Corvina oscula, which is much less esteemed for the table. SHEERNESS-ON-SEA, a seaport, watering-place, naval establishment, and garrison town in the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, is situated on the Thames at the mouth of the Med- way, on the Sittingbourne branch of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, 52 miles east of London, and 17 north-east of Maidstone. The older part of Sheerness, containing the dockyard, is called Blue Town, the later additions being known as Miletown, Bankstown, and Marinetown. Marinetown consists chiefly of houses occu- pied by summer visitors, but although there is a good beach for bathing the presence of the dockyard with its surroundings has militated against the success of the town as a watering-place. The dockyard, erected by the admi- ralty about 1830, was seriously damaged by fire in 1881. The naval establishment is only of the second-class, the basins being too small to admit vessels of the largest size. The dockyard is 60 acres in extent, and contains naval barracks with accommodation for 1000 men. A fort was built at Sheerness by Charles II., which on the 10th July 1667 was taken by the Dutch fleet under De Ruyter. After this mishap it was strengthened and a dockyard was formed. The fortifications are now of great strength, 100,000 having been spent in adapting them to modern necessities. The town is in the parish of Minster, which possesses the most ancient abbey church in England. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 938 acres) in 1871 was 13,956, and in 1881 it was H,286. SHEFFIELD, a municipal and parliamentary borough in the West Riding of Yorkshire, next to Leeds the largest town in the county, and the chief seat of the cutlery trade in England, is situated on somewhat hilly ground in the neighbourhood of the Pennine range, on several rivers and streams, the principal of which are the Don, the Sheaf, the Porter, the Rivelin, and the Loxley, and on the Midland, Great Northern, and various branch railway lines, 39 miles south of Leeds, 37 south-east of Manchester, 172 north of London by the Midland Railway, and 162 by the Great Northern. The borough of Sheffield is coextensive with the parish, and embraces a district 10 miles in length by 3 or 4 miles in breadth. It includes the townships of Sheffield, Brightside Bierlow, Attercliffe-cum-Darnall, Nether Ifallam, Heeley, Eccles- all Bierlow, and Upper Hallam, the last two districts being in great part rural, but occupied also by the southern and western suburbs of the borough. The older portions of the town are somewhat irregularly built, and in some districts densely populated, but much has been done of late years to widen and otherwise improve the streets in the central districts by the operation of an Act passed in 1875, the expense amounting in all to about 1,000,000. The suburbs contain a large number of beautiful terraces and mansions, picturesquely situated in the neighbourhood of fine natural scenery. A consider- able portion of them is occupied by workmen's cottages, many of which are surrounded by well-kept gardens. Sheffield in 1845 was divided into twenty-five parochial districts, which have been gradually added to in successive years, and in 1855 it was constituted a deanery. 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