174 SHEEP FARMING ON THE BORDER 



errand ; on arriving at the place where the sheep should 

 have been there was no sign of any living creature ! 

 The collies were then set to work, and it was extraordinary 

 to see how quickly they pounced upon the place where 

 a sheep lay buried ; and one old dog, Sparkie, is said to 

 have smelt out several at a depth of no less than fifty feet 

 below the snow ! The sheep were all living when found ; 

 but those that were very deeply buried felt the sudden 

 change into the bitter atmosphere above, for, after bound- 

 ing away in delight at their release, they were almost 

 instantly paralysed and fell helplessly upon the snow, 

 where they remained many hours before recovering the 

 use of their limbs. 



When the thaw came the rivers rose so suddenly 

 that many of the poor weakened creatures could not get 

 out of the way in time, and there is a curious record of 

 the ' throw up ' in the Solway which I quote here : ' 1840 

 sheep, 9 black cattle, 3 horses, 2 men, 1 woman, 45 dogs, 

 and 180 hares, besides a number of meaner animals.' 



In our own experience things are better : there are 

 more roads, and the railways are of much help in many 

 districts ; yet the elements remain as before, and we still 

 have our anxieties. I can call to mind being able to 

 walk over dykes on the snow wreaths, and days of drift 

 when one could not see the course of the Teviot lying 

 just below us. Such was a great storm on Old Year's night 

 in 1874, when six trains were snowed up for two days at 

 the head of Gala Water. Such, again, was a short sharp 

 storm in March 1889. It came on very suddenly, the 

 wind being so violent as to overturn two loaded trucks 

 on the railway near our farm in Liddesdale. The poor 

 sheep just ran before the blast on this farm, going to the 

 head of a deep clench or glen for shelter ; there they 

 could get no further, and were ' smoored,' or buried in 

 the soft snow. We lost 31 on that occasion ; "out close 

 by, on the Northumbrian border, losses were heavier, for, 

 as ill-luck would have it, the storm took place on the 





