REPORT ON THE TRANSIT OF STOCK. 465 



road are frequently very considerable. From Sutherland to York- 

 shire was not uncommon before the opening of the railways, and 

 now even Highland sheep, to the south, or to and from the winter- 

 ing grounds, walk hundreds of miles. Like mountaineers gener- 

 ally, they stand the fatigue with little injury. The scantiest 

 picking seems to support them in the many days of a long march, 

 and they arrive in the south with but few traces of the long way 

 they have come. 



Leicester sheep do not bear travelling well. Their great 

 weights, heavy fleeces, and comparatively tender constitutions, 

 soon make them show signs of weariness ; yet crosses, and in- 

 deed most descriptions of sheep, bear travelling very well ; and 

 if only good quarters could be obtained nightly, they might be 

 walked with advantage distances which are now generally done 

 by rail. But in an enclosed and cultivated country this accom- 

 modation is difficult to get, so that two days' journey may be 

 looked on as about the limit for sheep in the ordinary traffic of 

 the Lowlands. Unless the difficulty of getting sheep properly 

 fed during their journey, there does not seem to be many objec- 

 tions to the ordinary mode of conveying them by road. 



Fat sheep, like fat cattle, should be walked as short distances 

 ;as possible. The least possible fatigue, with attention to food 

 and rest, if the distance be over five miles, is perhaps the best 

 treatment for them. 



Pigs. — The conveyance of pigs by road is a very limited matter. 

 Occasionally a herd of them is to be met, and generally under 

 the care of an individual of Hibernian accent, who by some 

 peculiar means contrives to get them along in a tolerably steady 

 and satisfactory manner. Sometimes they are to be seen in lots of 

 three or four on the way to the shambles, or if in store condition 

 they are marched on foot by cottiers and small farmers to or 

 from market, distances seldom exceeding two or three miles. 

 Frequently they are carried in carts, and this seems on the whole 

 the best means of getting them over the road, as by nature they are 

 bad travellers, walking very slowly, soon becoming fatigued and 

 footsore, and withal generally determined to go the wrong way. 

 It may, therefore, be considered fortunate that the majority of pigs 

 are either slaughtered where they are bred, or are moved when small 

 enough to get into a " poke," which indeed seems to have been 

 the natural conveyance for a juvenile pig from time immemorial. 



Before closing the subject of transit by road, it may be worth 

 while to notice one of its adjuncts, viz., the ferry-boat, with or 

 without steam. Usually these are mere iioating pens, into which 

 the stock may be put and conveyed both with comfort and safety, 

 if only properly used ; but whenever the number of stock to be 

 ferried becomes larger than the boat can comfortably carry, the 

 common practice is to force into it as many as possible ; and 



