NORTHUMBERLAND AND DURHAM. 149 
furnished; the invalids still go there in greater numbers than 
ever, but the milk is, we think, now little used. 
3. OVIS, Linn. 
1. O. artes, Zinn. Saeer. Ramu. Ewer. Lamp. 
igroceros aries, Pallas; Capra ovis, Blumenb.; Ovis rus- 
ticus, Linn.—Common Sheep; Ovis Anglicana, Linn.—= 
Hornless (Lincolnshire) Sheep; Ovis hispanica, Linn.—= 
Merino (middle-woolled) Sheep. 
This animal, also, is not indigenous to these islands. Its 
parentage is generally referred to the Mouflon or Musmon of 
Corsica and Sardinia, or to the Argali of Asia, both, perhaps, 
divergent races from one common stock. 
Among the breeds of sheep common or peculiar to Northum- 
berland, are the black-faced heather sheep, a hardy mountain 
race, agile and active, producing fine high-flavoured moor- 
mutton. They are, however, small in size, and the wool is 
coarse and shaggy; hence they are fast being displaced by the 
Cheviots, a breed equally hardy, but producing a heavy carcase 
and fine wool, and whose improvement, and consequent high 
reputation and rapid diffusion, is a matter of just pride to the 
Northumberland breeders. They are now acknowledged to be 
the breed best adapted for the exposed grassy fells and moor- 
lands of the north of England, the south of Scotland, and Suther- 
landshire, and have consequently been generally adopted by the 
stock farmers of these districts. 
Bewick, who is eloquent in praise of this breed, and of the 
skill of his countrymen in improving it, says, “they thrive 
on the most sterile heaths, their wool is of the most desirable 
texture, they are easily fattened, and their whole conformation 
is so properly suited to mountainous pastures, that we are sur- 
prised the breed has not already been more generaily diffused.” 
The little mountain breed first noticed are probably the repre- 
sentatives of the earliest domesticated race in these islands, 
much resembling those of Wales and other wild districts to 
which the Celtic population retired before the Norman and Saxon 
