374 Mountain Breeds of Sheep. 



l^^lb. to 2 lbs., and taking the clip of a flock all round, it will 

 be about 5 lbs. washed. Thin light flesh is always guarded 

 against as producing a weak staple of wool, but still the best 

 breeders do not care for too heavy a fleece, on the ground that it 

 indicates a deficiency in fattening qualities. 



Dartmoor gives its name to a breed of sheep which are to be 

 found on its 350,000 acres, and from 10 to 15 miles round it. 

 Just as in Cumberland there is no visible distinction between 

 Skiddaw Forest and the adjoining fells, so on Dartmoor no wall 

 or fence separates the Moor from the Forest, though the boundary 

 line is known. The latter, which belongs to the Duchy of 

 Cornwall, is wholly in the parish of Lydlord, and amounts to 

 about 80,000 acres. Those who have lands in the neighbouring 

 parishes have rights of pasturage and turbary upon it, and 

 enjoy common rights on the Moor as well. The Moor itself is a 

 sort of tableland of bog, with moss, lichens, and cotton-grass, 

 and broken by peaks or tors, surmounted with granite boulders, 

 A few acres have been broken up for potatoes, hops were planted, 

 but with no success ; and good meadow hay is won in its glens 

 and valleys. The herbage does well at certain seasons for ponies 

 and sheep, and carries on older beasts better than young. Many 

 farms round the flanks of the Moor have " new takes," or a right 

 to take in so much of it for the use of their farms ; and there is 

 also a right of " ren will," which the tenants can exercise against 

 those who, without any right, put sheep on the commons nearest 

 their farms. These " new takes " are always kept in grass, and 

 hence of the 400 or 500 flocks which bear the Dartmoor name, 

 many never enter the unenclosed Moor at all. The latter is 

 generally let in quarters to tacksmen, who take in sheep and. 

 charge so much per score. On the high parts of the Moor 

 there is invariably meat, even in the driest season, but the 

 sheep must be shifted in due time to the slate rock, or they 

 will pine away. The Moor's " May-day " for ewes and lambs 

 is on the 20th, but many flock-masters are afraid, and not 

 without reason, of the scab, and only send in their old 

 wethers, which leave again between Christmas and Lady-day, 

 If they belong to an adjacent farm, they are sometimes put in by 

 day and removed by night. In short, considering their modern 

 mode of life, it is difficult to speak of the Dartmoor as a hill or 

 mountain sheep, except by courtesy, or by virtue of their 

 spreckled face, which has given way in many flocks to a sort of 

 very light dun. 



The ewes lamb from the middle of February to the middle of 

 March, and very seldom in yards. Their lambs are remarkably 

 hardy — " get up, blow their nose, shake their ears, and suck their 



