SHEEP FABMING ON THE BORDEB 173 



the thaw did almost as much damage as the actual storm 

 itself. The ground had been covered with hard frozen 

 snow for some time -before it began, and the shepherds 

 were all keeping their weather eyes open in expectation 

 of a blast. The day before the storm was thick, dark, 

 and piercingly cold, but without a breath of wind, so 

 that no one had an idea from which direction the tempest 

 would come. One old man, out of his own experience, 

 said that wherever the first opening appeared through 

 the fog the storm would burst; whereat his fellow- 

 shepherds hooted, for just then a south wind sprang up, 

 and the opening appeared in the north ! Nevertheless 

 the old man was right, for, towards midnight, with a roar 

 like thunder, the hurricane broke with a blinding drift 

 from the north. This lasted for about a week ; but to 

 give you some idea of the strength of the blast, I must 

 tell you that two hours before daylight it was impossible 

 to get out of any door facing north, so deep were the 

 drifts outside. In a short time the whole aspect of the 

 country was changed ; dykes, of course, had vanished, 

 valleys were levelled, burns which, in the morning, had 

 been swollen to the size of rivers, had in many places 

 disappeared, and even trees were buried entirely out of 

 sight. 



So you can, perhaps, understand a little the difficulty 

 younger shepherds, who were new to the district, had in 

 rescuing the sheep on this occasion ; for they recognised 

 their whereabouts only by landmarks, and were dismayed 

 to find that everything had completely gone. But all 

 the experienced hands had set out before daylight — with 

 their hats tied firmly on their heads, their plaids sewn 

 round them, and a good flask of whisky in their breast 

 pockets — in search of the sheep. They plodded thus, 

 three or four of them together, in single file, each man 

 leading in turn, for the fury of the blast was such that no 

 mortal could stand up against it for more than ten 

 minutes at a stretch. It seemed an almost hopeless 



