. [ s ] 



the ikin is left very bare, the young wool not 

 being yet grown. On the other hand, if that {hear- 

 ing be too long delayed, the young wool has grown 

 to fuch a length as to entangle the flieers in it, fo as 

 to cut off a part of it, which is both troublefome and 

 ufelefs. But when the wool is rifen to its pro- 

 per ftate, the Iheers Hide over the young fleece, and 

 cut off the few remaining hairs of the old fleece 

 with the utmofl; eafe, fo that the flieep dlfcovers no 

 marks of being fliorn, and looks like a lamb in that 

 refpeft. 



It would feem that there is a much greater pro- 

 portion of the hair-bearing race among the breeds 

 of flieeps in the Southern parts of the Iflandj for I 

 obferve that Mr, Lisle, who lived in Hampfliire, 

 and was an attentive obferver, though he had heard 

 of this young wool under the name of rowety-vjoo\, 

 hpd never feen it. It is well known in Scotland, that 

 this phenomenon does not depend on the leannefs of 

 wool-bearing flieep, but takes place among thofe that 

 are in the bed condition fooneft.* 



• I find that moft people have an idea that the phenomenon of 

 young wool, rifing at the bottom of the fleece of flieep before fliearing, 

 and all the peculiarities here mentioned, are entirely occafioned by a 

 check the flieep have received from a want of food in the winter: 

 to this opinion I cannot accede, for the reafon after mentioned, though 

 I know well that when a flieep hasluftained a great ftrefs of weather 

 during winter, it does happen that the old fleece fometimes feparates 

 prematurely from the flcin; but in that cafe the fleece becomes mat- 

 ted, and aflumcs an appearance extremely diiferent from the natural 



and 



