AFFECTION OF SHEEP. 53 



it; looking up at us with pleasure, if not gratitude, and 

 expressing her sensations by several cries, very differ- 

 ent from those bleatings she had uttered in her dis- 

 tress. 



The delight we felt was little inferior to that of this 

 tender creature, whose maternal solicitude impelled 

 her to a conduct that nearly approached to reason. 

 Indeed, it is extremely difficult to fix the limit where 

 instinct ends, and the reasoning faculty commences : 

 so nearly interwoven are the gradations of being, that 

 the distinctions are scarcely perceptible. 



The farmer's wife was also well pleased at saving 

 her lambkin, and entreated us to rest ourselves in her 

 parlour, and partake of a bowl of raspberries and cream. 

 We accepted her hospitable invitation, and were well 

 entertained with her conversation, as she was qualified 

 to give us much interesting information concerning the 

 sheep. " Our old shepherd," said she, " has had long 

 experience in his business : he can readily distinguish, 

 by the cries of the mother, whether a lamb is lost by 

 drowning, falling into a pit, or destroyed by birds or 

 beasts of prey. In the two first cases, she runs about 

 in a frantic, disordered manner, utters a wild sort, of 

 cry, comes hastily back, and will look into the hole 

 or pit where it is. If the lamb be carried away, her 

 behaviour is still more disordered : she runs about 

 from one of her neighbour's lambs to another, and the 



