216 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



sionally an Arab, but the small farmers on the moun- 

 tain-side stand greatly in their own light, and persist 

 in neglecting material which in skilful hands might 

 prove a very mine, and which, even as it is, yields 

 occasional most exquisite specimens. To see a herd 

 in summer-time beneath you in a hollow of the 

 Black Mountains gathered by a spring — of all ages, 

 yearlings, foals, colts, two-year-olds, with the brood 

 mares white from age — and then to contemplate the 

 ragged-jointed indescribable that is lord of the troop, 

 it is a wonder that anything tolerable ever passes to 

 the lowlands. But it is about Christmas-time that, 

 as a purchaser, you have a chance of selecting de- 

 liberately to suit your taste. Then, when the Sibe- 

 rian weather sets about those everlasting hills, and 

 by the 



"precipices huge 

 Smoothed up with snow " 



there is no longer any picking to be found, they 

 descend to the boundary of the common land and are 

 admitted into straw-yards, being all distinguished by 

 their respective owners through special marks upon 

 the ear or flank. Then is there opportunity for a 

 judge to pick many a valuable colt from amidst the 

 bright-eyed bears (for they look like nothing else), as 

 they crowd nervously into a corner on your approach, 

 ready to spring over if it be not exceeding high, or, 

 cat-like, scramble across in a moment. Some five- 

 and-twenty years ago the noble-hearted proprietor of 

 Rug, in Denbighshire, Colonel Vaughan, lineal des- 

 cendant of Prince Llewelyn, took great pride in the 



