282 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



clothes. I had a look across the lake — a distance of probably 

 a mile — and could faintly discern cattle feeding on the hillside. 

 How I followed my horse, carrying the saddle on my own 

 back, until he was caught by my making a short cut across a 

 promontory, and travelled round the lake, reaching the cattle 

 about midday, and found my way through the belt of birch 

 forest, reaching home that night, are memories of the past. 

 These cattle were the same fifteen head, and even the calf was 

 with them. This I should say is a record swim, taking into 

 consideration that it was undertaken in the dim gloaming, 

 and that the course could hardly have been a direct one 

 under the circumstances. 



The Sheep. 



The nature of the merino is very feral. They prefer the 

 high mountain-range. When alarmed a blowing whistle is 

 made through the nostrils, and the instinct is to make up- 

 wards. They also stamp with the fore foot. In mustering 

 large flocks they are driven along the mountain-range by 

 shepherds walking a distance apart, so making a line from top 

 to bottom of the hill, and forcing the sheep in one direction 

 for three to nine miles, thus massing them up to a suitable 

 place to force them on the lower flats or valley-bottom, from 

 whence they are driven to the yards. 



Sometimes very large losses occur even in careful manage- 

 ment, and when no person is within a considerable distance of 

 the animals, who are " stringing" along in long lines, looking 

 from a distance like many long snakes wriggling along the face 

 of the hill. This may be called " the follow-my-leader instinct." 

 If the first sheep in a string should enter a creek-hollow at the 

 wrong place, and be unable to climb the opposite side, those 

 following may keep coming on and tread imderfoot their 

 leaders, who may be all smothered, and make a dying bridge 

 for the remainder to pass over. It is a difficult matter to stop 

 those following when the danger is observed, for even two or 

 three men may not at first be able to " break the string " and 

 direct those following into a safer course. 



Eams, when the season is ofi', will collect together in parties 

 of three to fifteen, and many, if fences allow, will come to the 

 gate of the ram-paddock as to their proper home. 



If black sheep are bred together their progeny is also 

 black, or grey. The merino gives the more uniform black, 

 often with forehead and tail white. I have a flock of eight 

 hundred old sheep and some two hundred and fifty lambs, 

 crossbred merino-Lincoln. Having started this flock eleven 

 years ago, my returns for wool are below the average for white 

 fleece. Many of these sheep have a small white spot under 

 either eye, and in light-coloured ones the belly and thighs are 



