364 THE COMMON SHEEP. 



same operation, will neither thicken nor form any 

 texture whatever. 



It is from the manufacture of this wool into 

 various kinds of clothing, that many thousands of 

 people,, in different countries of Europe, are en- 

 tirely supported and fed. In temperate countries 

 it is shorn or cut off once, and in others, where the 

 climate is warmer, twice in the year. Previously 

 to the shearing, the Sheep are driven to some 

 neighbouring river, or stream, to be washed, The 

 conducting of the animals from the folds, for this 

 purpose, by the shepherds, has been well described 

 by Thomson. 



" Rushing thence in one diffusive band, they 

 Drive the troubled flocks, by many a dog 

 Compell'd, to where the mazy-running brook 

 Forms a deep pool ; this bank abrupt and high, 

 And that fair spreading in a pebbled shore. 

 Urg'd to the giddy brink, much is the toil, 

 The clamour much, of men, and boys, and dogs, 

 Ere the soft, fearful people to the flood 

 Commit their woolly sides." 



After the Ewes and Lambs are shorn, there is 

 i 



a great confusion and bleating, neither the dams 

 nor young ones being able ,to distinguish each 

 other as before. This embarrassment does not 

 seem so much to arise from the loss of the fleece, 

 which may occasion an alteration in their appear- 

 ance, as from a defect of that natus odor, or native 

 smell, by which each individual is personally dis- 

 criminated, 



