38 THE SHEEP. 



The sheep, in consequence of the warm and oily nature of its 

 fleece, is able to bear the greatest extremity of cold ; and whole 

 flocks, in endeavouring to shelter themselves under a high hedge, 

 or the brow of a steep hill, have frequently been buried many 

 days under the snow without any detriment. 



The varieties, observable in this quadruped, are so multiplied, 

 that no two countries, nor scarcely any two districts, produce 

 sheep exactly of the same kind. A visible difference is found be- 

 tween all the different breeds, either in size, the shape, the fleece, 

 or the horns. The woolly sheep is an inhabitant only of Europe, 

 and the temperate regions of Asia ; if it be transported into a 

 hotter country, it not only becomes less prolific, but its flesh loses 

 its flavour, and what is still more remarkable, its wool changes 

 into a long rough kind of hair, which, by its openness and cool- 

 ness, is a covering far better suited to a warm climate, than the 

 close and woolly fleece with which it is clothed in these parts of 

 the world ; a circumstance which exhibits a remarkable instance 

 of the wisdom and goodness of Divine Providence, in providing 

 for the well-being of all creatures. 



The sheep, in the mountainous parts of Wales, where they 

 are rendered wild by the unrestrained liberty which they enjoy, 

 do not always go in large flocks, but sometimes graze in parties 

 of about eight or twelve, one of which remains at some distance 

 from the rest, to give notice should any danger approach. When 

 the sentinel sees any one advancing, at the distance of two or 

 three hundred yards, he turns his face to the enemy, keeping a 

 watchful eye upon his motions, allowing him, usually, to approach 

 within eighty or a hundred yards; buf if the suspected foe pro- 

 ceeds to come nearer, the watchful guard alarms his comrades 

 by a loud hiss, or whistle, twice or thrice repeated, when the 

 whole party instantly make off with great agility, always flying 

 to the steepest and most inaccessible parts of the mountain. 



It is very singular, that in the Holms round Kirkwall, in the 

 island of Mainland, one of the Orkneys, if any person, about 

 the lambing time, enters with a dog, or even without, the ewes 

 suddenly take fright, and through fear, as it is imagined, in- 

 stantly drop down dead, as though shot through the head with a 

 musket-ball. 



No country produces finer sheep than Great Britain. Those 

 of Spain have finer wool, but their fleeces stand in no degree of 

 comparison with those of Lincolnshire, and many other parts of 

 this kingdom, for weight and general utility. Like other rumi- 

 nating animals, the sheep wants the upper fore-teeth : it has 

 eight in the lower jaw, two of which drop out, and at the age 

 of two years are replaced ; four of them are renewed at the age 

 of three, and the rest at that of four years. The ewe produces 



