Mountain Breeds of Sheep. 361 



is generally allowed to be due. Their tups were all bred on 

 the Cfieviot ranges, and 70 or 80 of them would sell and let 

 for about 700/., when they were marshalled each year in the 

 great barn. It was said that there was a cross from Dishley 

 in the flock ; but it was, at all events, with sheep of this 

 blood that the late Mr. Reed left Reed- Water, on the south side 

 of the Cheviots, to push his fortunes in Sutherlandshire and 

 drive the Blackface out of the county. We hear of him, as years 

 went on, with 18,000 sheep upon a farm of eighteen miles by 

 eight along the banks of the Helmsdale and the Brora, and 

 handing over 2006 three-year old wethers and 1500 cast ewes 

 one September to a great Hawick salesman. 



In the north of Scotland it is all heather, and in the south all 

 grass ; but the lower range at which the cotton-grass grows on 

 the hills of Sutherlandshire enables the sheep to tide it better 

 over the winter without the aid of mountain hay. The southern 

 Cheviots are thus brought up more artificially, and it seems a 

 question whether the tups are quite so hardy and so active in 

 following the ewes ; but still all the present prizetakers come 

 out of their ranks, and the Northern breeders do not care to 

 meet them in the Highland Society's ring. The most im- 

 proved type of Cheviots, like Mr. Brydon's (for whose tups 

 between 100 and 200 guineas have been given recently at his 

 biennial Beattock sale), have good Roman-nosed heads, flat 

 crowns covered with hard white hair, and that " cock of the lug 

 and glint of the eye " which tell of mettle that will make them 

 hunt the hill for footl, and not hang listlessly round the hay- 

 hecks after a storm. They have also a fine " parkranging neck," 

 rather Leicester-like girth and width between the forelegs, light 

 and clefty bone, and plenty of wool under the belly as well as 

 on the arms and thighs. A good forearm, or " butcher's grip," 

 is as great a point as white legs (though the grey-legged ones 

 are generally good provers) and a black nose; and the horned 

 tups are thought more hardy, though they are often coarser in 

 the coat. 



The wether hoggs, and, of late years, the ewe hoggs in the 

 Border counties, are put on to turnips the first winter, as a safe- 

 guard against braxy ; and with such treatment they will cut 

 from 4^ lbs. to 5 lbs. of wool. For hill ewes, 3^ lbs. to 4 lbs. is 

 a high average, and three-year old wethers, after four months of 

 turnips, will cut 6 lbs., and kill at 20 lbs. to 22 lbs. a quarter. 

 The cast ewes are sold, when four or five years old, at about 28^. 

 — though during the last two years the prime lots have gone 

 much higher — to be put to a Leicester tup, where " a flying stock " 

 is kept ; and the " middle " ewe lambs find customers among 



