524 SHEEP ISLAND BREEDS 



Certainly they are celebrated for fineness of wool, diminutive 

 size, and excellence of mutton, as also for hardiness where 

 they have access to the seashore and can get a supply of 

 seaweed ; but if confined on hill ground, I do not think they 

 are hardier than the Blackface sheep. The average weight of 

 a Shetland sheep's fleece is about 2\ Ibs.; price at the present 

 time varies from 2s. 6d. for best murret (light brown) wool 

 to lod. for the coarser qualities of black and white. The 

 weight of a ewe off the hill is about 32 Ibs., and that of a 

 three- or four-year-old wether 38 Ibs., but if fed on good 

 green ground the latter will reach 42 Ibs. The tail is slightly 

 like a flounder, thick or flat at the root, and coming to a 

 sharp point, and rarely exceeds 4 ins. long. On some, but 

 by no means on all sheep, there are coarse hairs. Many of 

 these hairs come off along with the wool in the end of May 

 or June. A number, however, often remain fixed to the 

 skin. If it is wished to retain the fine nature of the wool, 

 it must be 'roved' or pulled off. It rises from the skin 

 if the fleece is ripe and the roving does not cause pain to 

 the sheep. If a Shetland sheep is once clipped it seldom 

 can be ' roved ' again, but must be again clipped. The 

 clipping makes the wool much coarser, and in the clipped 

 fleece there is of course a quantity of new wool, useless for 

 'hosiery' purposes, with the old. When the wool is being 

 hand-carded and spun, all the new wool is forced off and 

 thrown away ; consequently a clipped fleece is of much 

 less value to the crofter's wife or daughter who manufactures 

 the fleece into hosiery. It is no uncommon thing for a 

 Shetland woman to get from i8s. to 255. for the proceeds 

 of one Shetland fleece after it is spun and knitted. 



" The native sheep are driven into ' crues ' or ' punds ' 

 almost every week from about the 1 5th of May till the end 

 of June, because there is such a difference in the time 

 between sheep being ready for ' roving.' It may be a week 

 or more from the time that the sides of a sheep are roved 

 till its back is ready. Shetland sheep, although miles out 

 of sight of the sea, know when the tide begins to go back, 

 and all make for the shore. The Shetland crofters believed 

 and some of the older people still believe that there is 

 a worm in a sheep's foot that moves when the tide begins 

 to go back." 



