546 SHEEP MOUNTAIN AND MOORLAND 



ficial shelter, and their second lair may be a long way from 

 the first. 



Mountain sheep naturally incline to pasture on the 

 restricted area or " heft " l on which they have been born, 

 with the limited number of sheep that naturally run together 

 and form a " heft." Two, or usually more, hefts compose a 

 "hirsel," or herding numbering 500 or 600 breeding ewes and 

 1 20 to 150 hoggs under the care of one shepherd, aided by a 

 boy in summer. Sheep belonging to the different hefts meet 

 on their unfenced marches, but do not as a rule mingle to 

 any great extent. A shrill whistle given by the shepherd on 

 his fingers is sufficient to separate them and cause them to 

 retreat to their own ground. Sheep on heathery ground 

 encroach to some extent during summer upon adjoining grassy 

 land, and in winter sheep on grassy land encroach on adjoining 

 heathery ground in both instances drawn by the abundance 

 and change of seasonable food and the scarcity or unseason- 

 able character of their own supply. In winter weather, too, 

 sheep from the dead side of a hill seek the sunny side, 

 especially when snow covers the surface too deeply for them 

 to " work," i.e., scrape with the fore feet to get at the grass 

 underneath. 



As the practices of shepherding vary in different districts, 

 no absolute rules can be -laid down, but the general move- 

 ment of hill sheep is as follows : From the beginning of 

 lambing in April till weaning in August (a period when 

 sheep rest but once during the night), the shepherd goes 

 round the heights in the early morning to see that all his 

 sheep move down to the generally richer land. Little 

 difficulty is experienced with the morning start, and the 

 rapidity of the descent may be encouraged by placing rock 

 salt at the lowest part of the ground. Sheep are very fond 

 of licking salt, and they thrive better in consequence, owing 

 to its strengthening and purifying influence on the' blood and 

 the check which it gives to the development of liver fluke 

 and other worm parasites. During warm weather in spring, 

 it is sometimes very heavy work in the afternoon for both 

 man and dogs to get weak ewes with young lambs out to the 

 hill tops. The shepherd sees all his ground once and most of 



l The word is equally applied to the sheep and to the area they 

 onj --: Jl:,. ,'3 il v/oi 



