376 THE SOUTH-DOWN SHEEP. 



polled; and, moreover, that they had blackish 

 faces, with a white tuft of wool on their foreheads, 

 and speckled or spotted legs. Thus, (as he re- 

 marks,) one might almost suppose that the flocks of 

 Laban were pasturing on one side of the river, 

 whilst the variegated breed of his son-in-law were 

 cantoned along the other. And this diversity held 

 good, respectively on each side, from the valley of 

 Bramber and Breeding, to the eastward ; and west- 

 ward, all the length of the downs. If any one 

 talked with the shepherds on the subject, he was 

 informed, that this had been the case from time im- 

 memorial ; and they would smile at his simplicity, 

 if he asked them whether the situation of these two 

 different breeds might not be reversed. An intel- 

 ligent friend of Mr. White's, at the hazard of being 

 laughed at by all his neighbours, determined to try 

 the experiment, and, in the autumn of 1769, intro- 

 duced some black-faced hornless Rams amongst his 

 horned western Ewes. It is scarcely necessary, in 

 this place, to add, that his experiment fully suc- 

 ceeded *. 



White's Works in Natural History, i. p. 278. 



THE 



