Book VII. VARIETIES OF SHEgP. 995 



and fine, from If to 2 lbs. per fleece. This race have a voracious appetite, and a restless 

 and unquiet disposition, which makes it difficult to keep them in any other than the 

 largest sheep-walks or commons. Tliey prevail most in Norfolk and Suffolk, and seem 

 to have been retained solely for the purpose of folding ; as it does not appear they have 

 any other good property to recommend them, besides being good travellers, for which they 

 seem well adapted, from their very long legs and light clean carcases. 



6401. The Cheviot breed {fg. 612.) are without ^. g.^2 

 horns, the head bare and clean, with jaws of a good 

 length, faces and legs white. The body is long, 

 but the fore-quarters generally want depth in the 

 breast, and breadth both there and on the chine ; 

 though, in these respects, great improvement has 

 been made of late. They have fine, clean, small- 

 boned legs, well covered with wool to the hough. 

 The weight of the carcase, when fat, is from 12' 

 to 18 lbs. per quarter; their fleece, which is of a medium length and fineness, weighs 

 about 3 lbs. on an average. Though these are the general characters of the pure Cheviot 

 breed, many have grey or dun spots on their face^^nd legs, especially on the borders of 

 their native districts, where they have intermixed with their black-faced neighbors. On 

 the lower hills, at the extremity of the Cheviot range, they have been frequently crossed 



w ith the Leicesters, of which several flocks, originally Cheviot, have now a good deal 

 both of the form and fleece. The best kind of these sheep are certainly a very good 

 mountain stock, where the pasture is mostly green sward, or contains a large portion of 

 that kind of herbage, which is the case of all the hills around Cheviot, where those sheep 

 are bred. Large flocks of them have been sent to the Highlands of Scotland, where they 

 have succeeded so well as to encourage the establishment of new colonies ; yet they are 

 by no means so hardy as the heath or black-faced kind, which they have, in many in- 

 stances, supplanted. 



6402. Of those races of sheep that range over the mountainous districts of Britain, the 

 most numerous, and the one probably best adapted to such situations, is the heath breed, 

 distinguished by their large spiral horns, black faces and legs, fierce wild-looking eyes, and 

 short, firm carcases, covered with long, open, coarse shagged wool. Their weight is from 

 10 to 16 lbs. a quarter, and they carry from 3 to 4 lbs. of wool each. They are seldom fed 

 until they are three, four, or five years old, when they fatten well, and give excellent 

 mutton, and highly flavored gravy. Different varieties of these sheep are to be found in 

 all the western counties of England and Scotland, from Yorkshire northwards, and they 

 want nothing but a fine fleece to render them the most valuable upland sheep in Britain. 



6403. The Herdwick sheep {fig. 673.) are peculiar to that rocky mountainous district, at the head of the 

 ,^jp^ Duddon and Esk rivers in tlie county of Cumberland. They are 



673 without horns, have speckled faces and legs, wpol short, weighing 



from 2 to 2a lbs. jier sheej), which, though coarser than that of any of 

 the other short-wooled breeds, is yet much finer than the wool of 

 the heath slicep. The mountains upon which the Herdwicks are 

 bred, and also the stock itself, have, time immemorial, been 

 fanned out to herds, and from this circumstance their name is de- 

 rived. 



6404. The dun-faced breed, said to have been imported into Scot- 

 land from Denmark or Norway at a very early period, still exists in 

 most of the counties to the north of the Firth of Forth, though only 

 in very small flocks. Of this .ancient race there are now several 

 varieties, produced by peculiarities of situation, and different modes 

 of management, and by occasional intermixture with other breeds. 

 We may, therefore, distinguish the sheep of the mainland of Scotland from those of the Hebrides, and of 

 the northern islands of Orkney and Zetland. 



64()5. The Hebridean sheep is the smallest animal of its kind. It is of a thin, lank shape, and has usually 

 straight shorn horns. The face and legs are white, the tail very short, and the wool of various colors ; 

 sometimes of a blucish grey, brown or deep russet, and sometimes all these colors meet in the fleece of one 

 animal. Where the pasture and management are favorable, the wool is very fine, resembling in softness 

 that of Shetland ; but, in other parts of the same islands, the wool is stunted and coarse, the animal sickly 

 and i)uny, and frequently carries four, or even six horns. The average weight of this poor breed, even 

 when fat, is only 5 or 5i lbs. per quarter, or nearly about 20 lbs. per sheep. It is often much less, only 

 amounting to 15 or 16U)s. ; and the price of the animal's carcase, skin and all, is from 10s. to 14*. Fat 

 wedders have been sold in the Long Island at Is. a head, and ewes at 5s. or 65. The quantity of wool 

 which the fleece yields is equally contemptible with (he weight of the carcase. It rarely exceeds one 

 pound weight, and is often short of even half that quantity. The quantity of the wool is different on dif- 

 ferent parts of the body ; and inattention to separating the fine from tlie coarse, renders the cloth made 

 in the Hebrides very unequal and i>rccarious in its texture. The average value of a fleece of this abori- 

 },'inal Hebridean breed is from Sd. to 1*. sterling. From this account it is plain, that the breed in question 

 has every chance of being speedily extirpated. {Macdonald's Itcpoif of the Hebrides, p. 447.) 



6406. Of the Zetland sheep it would appear that there are two varieties, one of which is considered to be 

 the native race, and carries very fine wool ; but the number of these is much diminished, and in some 

 places they have been entirely supplanted by foreign breeds ; the other variety carries coarse wool above, 

 and soft fine wool below. They have three diflerent successions of wool yearly, two of which rt*semble 

 long hair more than wool, and are termed by the common peoplc/ors and scudda. When the wool begins 

 to loosen in the roots, which generally happens about the month of February, the hairs, or scudda, spring 

 up ; and when the wool is carefully plucked off, the tough hairs continue fast until the new wool grows up 

 about a quarter of an inch in length, then they gradually wear off; and when the new fleece has acquired 

 about two months' growth, the rough hairs, terme<l fors, spring up and keep root until the proper season 



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