Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

S H E —s H E
out on each side, far away from the animal’s head, instead of curl¬
ing round nearly m the same plane, as in most of the allied species
A very smular if not identical species from the same origin in
which the horns retain their more normal development ’has
received the name of 0. karelini. Eastward and northward is
found die argali {0. ammon), with a wide and not very well
determined range. _ Still further north, in the Stanovoi Mountains
and Kamchatka, is 0. mvicolct, 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. montana), the only one of the genus found in that continent
and indeed—except the bison,the musk-ox {Ovibos), mountain <mat
{Aploceras),' and the prongbuck (Antilocapm)—tl\e only hollow-
hoined 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. vignei of Ladak, 0. cycloceros of northern
India, Persia, and Baluchistan, 0. gmelini of Asia Minor, 0. ovhion,
confined to the elevated pine-clad Troodos Mountains of the
island of Cyprus, and said at the time of the British occupation
m 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.
tragelaphus, 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 number
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 )
feHEEPSHEAD 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;
785
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-
inguished 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 Scisenoid, 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 10 th 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 14,286.
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 Hallam, Heeley, Eccles-
all Bierlow, and Upper Ilallam, 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. The
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