232 THE BLACKFACED BREED OF SHEEB. 



opinion, that if the original breed still existed anywhere entirely 

 unmixed, it was in the Shetland isles. In connection with this 

 reference to Shetland, it may not be out of place to mention a 

 curious fact related by Sir John Sinclair, in his work on the 

 northern counties of Scotland, published in 1795. " It is now 

 pretty clearly ascertained," Sir John says, " that the celebrated 

 Shetland breed of sheep came originally from Denmark and 

 Norway, along with the first adventurers who settled in these 

 islands some centuries ago. A young sheep from Eanders, in 

 Jutland, was presented to Sir John Sinclair by Mr Gladstone , 

 merchant at Leith, and was found to be exactly similar to the 

 sheep of Shetland." This passage has suggested to some that 

 possibly the old whitefaced Scottish sheep was a similar animal 

 to that which was formerly common in all the northern countries 

 of Europe. This opinion receives no countenance in an account 

 given by Marshall of the central Highlands. " Formerly," he 

 writes," and T believe from time immemorial, the Highlands and 

 the entire north of Scotland were stocked with a race of sheep 

 almost as different from those of the southern provinces as goats 

 and deer are from the ancient breed, whose fur consisted of a 

 sort of down, overtopped by long straight rigid hair, somewhat 

 like the coat of the beaver and other furred animals ; widely 

 different from the wool of European sheep in general. And 

 besides this distinction of coat, there is another characteristic 

 difference which marks them still more strongly. The tail, 

 which in all varieties of wooUed sheep is long and all covered 

 s^ith wool, resembling that of the rest of the body, is, in the 

 animal under notice, short, slender, tapering, and thinly covered 

 with strong silvery hairs, and not exceeding in size that of the 

 deer or the goat. Its face, too, is covered with sleek hairs, as 

 that of the deer ; and, like this, it has the eyes prominent." 



A more flattering description of the breed is found in the 

 survey of Aberdeenshire produced by Dr Keith. On the fineness 

 of the wool this writer has a good deal to say. " Their wool," 

 he states, " though deficient in point of length and quantity, was 

 of most excellent C[uality, and not inferior to any Spanish wool. 

 Stockings made from it were worn by persons of the first rank 

 in Britain, and exported to the Continent at very high prices. 

 One lady belonging to this county knitted them of so fine 

 texture that they were sold at three guineas a pair, and several 

 of them were commissioned for by the Empress of Eussia. They 

 were so fine that a pair of them could have been drawn through 

 a ring that was taken off the finger of the fair manufacturer." 



Of this much-lamented breed there is now absolutely no trace 

 among the large Highland flocks. They not only disappeared 

 before" the black faced, but they disappeared without having 

 engrafted any of their characteristics upon the new comers. 

 They have, in fact, simply died out under the pressure of a 



