NATURAL HISTORY 



833 



also be taken into the account. But 

 from my ignorance of their detail, 

 I can say no more than that I con- 

 ceive that the great body of the tide 

 from the channel, must be subject 

 to much the same laws as the cur- 

 rent itself. The opposite tide will 

 doubtless occasion various inflex- 

 ions of the current, as it blends it- 

 self with it ; or may absolutely sus- 

 pend it; and the subject can never 

 be perfectly understood without a 

 particular attention to the velocity 

 and direction of the tides in mode- 

 rate weather, to serve as a ground- 

 work.* 



Circumstances relative to Merino 

 Sheep, chiefly collected from the 

 Spanish Shepherds, tvho attended 

 ■those ofthe flick of Paular, lately 

 presented to his Majesty by the go- 

 vernment of Spain ; and also res- 

 pecting the Sheep of the flock of 

 Negrette, importedflrom Spain by 

 his Majesty, in 1791. By Sir 

 Joseph Banks, President of 'the 

 Royal Society of London. \^From 

 Part'i'i. Vol. m.ofl Communications 

 to the Board<>f Agriculture.^ 



A considerable part ofEstrema- 

 dura, Leon, and the neighbouring 

 provinces of Spain, is appropriated 

 to the maintenance of the Merino 

 flocks, called by the Spaniards 

 Trashumantes, as are also broad 

 green roads, leading from one pro- 

 vince to the other, and extensive 

 resting-places, where the sheep are 

 baited on the road. So careful is 

 the police of the country to pre- 



serve them, during their journeys, 

 from all hazard of disturbance or 

 interruption, that no person, not 

 even a foot-passenger, is suffered 

 to travel upon those roads while the 

 sheep are in motion, unless he be- 

 longs to the flocks. 



The country on which the sheep 

 arp depastured, both in the south- 

 ern and the northern parts, is set 

 out into divisions, separated from 

 each other by land-marks only, 

 without any kind of fences; each 

 of these is called a Dehesa, and is 

 of a size capable of maintaining a 

 flock of about a thousand sheep, a 

 greater number, of course, in the 

 south country where the lambs are 

 reared, and fewer in the north 

 country, where the sheep arrive af- 

 ter the flock has been culled. 



Every proprietor must possess 

 as many of these in each province 

 as will maintain his flock. In the 

 temperate season of winter and 

 spring, the flocks remain in Estre- 

 madura, and there the ewes bring 

 forth their lambs in December. As 

 soon as the increasing heats of 

 April and May have scorched up 

 the grass, and rendered the pastur- 

 age scant}'-, they commence their 

 march towards the mountains of 

 Leon, and after having been shorn 

 on the road, at vast establishments 

 called Esquileos, erected for that 

 purpose, pass their summer in the 

 elevated country, which supplies 

 them with abundance of rich grass ; 

 and they do not leave the mountains 

 till the frosts of September begin to 

 damage the herbage. 



A flock in the aggregate is call- 

 ed a Cavana; this is divided into 



as 



• Messrs. Lavrie and Whittle's publication allows the tides in this quarter a ve- 

 locity of one mile and a half per hour, at the springs ; half a mile at the neaps Che 

 Britannia's accident happened at dead neaps. 

 Vol. LL 3 H 



