PRIMITIVE BREEDS OF SHEEP IN SCOTLAND 3 



could live, and owing to the much higher price of their lambs 

 and the greater quantity of their wool (which at that time was 

 worth twice as much per pound as it now is), they, together 

 with Cheviots, half-breds, and cross-breds, had supplanted the 

 native breed on all the improved land ; leaving the native 

 breed only in crofters' hands, on the very worst of the land 

 and common grazings. He quotes Shirefffor the fact that 

 the native breed had been much mixed with Dutch sheep, 

 during the time when the fishing was in the hands of Dutch 

 merchants. 



He calls it " a straight-horned or goat-like breed, the 

 fleece of wool and hair mixed, weight not over two pounds. 

 Its softness and fineness need not be enlarged on." 



Prof. Wallace, in Farm Live Stock (1905), quotes the late 

 Q. M. Hamilton, who said that " Youatt's description does not 

 hold quite good for the Shetland sheep of the present day, 

 as the only two islands on which they are really pure are 

 Foula and Papa Stour." 



I was not able to visit either of these islands, but have 

 purchased some of the best ewes from Foula this year, -which 

 differ in no respect from the light brown sheep (this colour 

 is known as mtirrct or uworit in Shetland) which I saw in 

 several places, and though the wool of this colour is the most 

 highly priced, on account of its use for shawl-knitting, it does 

 not seem so fine or soft as some of the white wool of North 

 Maven, neither does it approach in fineness the wool of two 

 specimens of Shetland sheep from Unst, presented in 1871 

 by T. Edmonston of Balta Sound to the Edinburgh (Royal 

 Scottish) Museum, where they are now exhibited — these are 

 apparently the only specimens of the breed in any museum. 



These specimens consist of a hornless ewe, and what I 

 believe to be a wether, with short horns (6f inches long), of 

 the usual wether type, the wool pure white and very fine, 2\ 

 to 3 inches long on the shoulder. The height of these sheep 

 as stuffed is 22 to 23 inches, the length of body (breast to 

 tail) 26 to 28 inches, the tail very short and broad at the 

 base. This form of tail is considered typical of the breed. I 

 estimated the weight of these sheep, if fairly fat, to have been 

 about 30 lbs. dressed. But the weight of Shetland lambs, 



