UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 43 



ners, and contented with their employment. As 

 to their houses, they are very different, indeed, 

 from the peon's hovel of upright posts, inter- 

 woven with branches of trees, and plastered with 

 mud, thatched with nothing but long grass, and 

 a hide stretched on four sticks, by way of a door. 



I was surprised to see with what docility a 

 number of cows allowed themselves to be driven 

 home by a little boy to Farmer Moreland's. My 

 uncle told me, that it is a great relief to them to 

 have their milk taken away ; and that were the 

 fields open, they would go home at the regular 

 hours to be milked. I had imagined that cows 

 had but a small portion of sense or instinct ; but 

 my uncle told me several instances of their saga- 

 city, and among others, one which he read lately 

 in travels in Norway and Lapland. 



The author frequently saw cows feeding close 

 to precipices several hundred feet high, where 

 an English cow would have but little chance of 

 escape ; but the Norway cows, turned out amidst 

 the mountains to procure their subsistence, be- 

 come as nimble as goats, and climb the rocky 

 crags with the greatest ease. 



The manner in which instinct has taught them 

 to descend the mountains is curious. Sitting on 

 their haunches, they place their fore-feet close 

 together, and in this way slide down places, 

 which from their steepness would appear quite 

 impassable with safety. 



