SHEEP. 



6*7 



are less injured by being 1 driven to market than almost 

 any other race of the genus. 



The Cheviot breed cannot exactly be said to be 

 either long- woolled or short woolled; and they do 

 not agree very well in character with any of those in 

 the south or the midland parts of England. They 

 are an intermediate sort between the sheep of the 

 grassy downs and those of the mountains, where, 

 although many of the grasses are rich and sweet, 

 the patches in which they occur are separated by 

 barren divisions. The pure Cheviot breed may be 

 considered as more peculiarly the border sheep, as 

 the border hills, both of Scotland and of England, are 

 especially their head-quarters ; but they have been 

 distributed from these over the greater part of the 

 sheep grounds in Scotland, which are not very much 

 elevated, and also into the mountainous parts of the 

 north of England, which are too much elevated for 

 the advantageous introduction of the Teesdale breed. 

 They have been much mixed with other races ; and, 

 in different places, they themselves have been bred 

 with various degrees of skill and care ; so that there 

 are considerable local variations in what are called 

 Cheviot sheep. When pure, they have the face and 

 legs white, and the former quite bare of wool ; and the 

 jaws are long, and the head neatly formed. Their 

 limbs are lightly and cleanly made. The body is 

 long, but there is a want of breadth both in the breast 

 and the dorsal portion, though the latter is not ridgy. 

 The average weight is nearly the same as that of the 

 South Downs, and so is the Heece, but the last is 

 longer and not so fine in the staple. It appears that 

 tiiis breed have been mixed with others, both at the 

 upland and the lower boundaries of their pastures. 

 The cross with the mountain sheep has taken place 

 at the first of these boundaries, and that with the 

 Lincoln, or rather the Tees-water, at the second. 

 The cross with the mountain sheep is known by dark 

 patches upon the face and the legs, a lessening of the 

 size, and a deterioration of the staple of the wool, 

 although with rather an improvement in the flavour 

 of the flesh. It is against this deterioration that the 

 observation of Burns is directed, when he alludes to 

 the coarse wool and clumsy legs of the mountain 

 sheep in the passage that has been quoted. The 

 cross with the Leicester breed produces a sheep of 

 very great value for situations moderately upland, as 

 the hardihood of the Cheviot is in a great measure 

 retained, while the plump carcass,, and the lengthened 

 Heece, rather increased in fineness, are to a consider- 

 able extent communicated. As already mentioned, 

 the Cheviot and its crosses have been with much ad- 

 vantage introduced upon the secondary heights, in 

 the eastern and central parts of the Scotch Highlands ; 

 and now that a rapid communication with London, 

 by means of fast-sailing and ample steam ships, is 

 iished with the Forth, the Tay, and the Dee, 

 there is no doubt that, an additional impulse will be 

 given to the culture of sheep in that end of the island, 

 where it certainly may be carried to double its present 

 extent with great advantage to all parties. As the 

 Heece of the Cheviot is a secondary consideration in 

 this traffic, and as it is limited to pastures upon which 

 s predominates, and where the climate is not too 

 humid, it may be that the facility which is thus 

 afforded in bringing the carcass, or rather the live 

 animal, to the southern market, may cause fresh atten- 

 tion to be paid to the old mountain breed, which has 

 certainly been treated with a neglect which it does 



not merit ; and no small part of the cause of this ap- 

 pears to lie in the fact that the improvers of sheep in 

 the north, instead of looking at the state of things as 

 before their own eyes, where they could have made 

 the experiments, and acquired the information for 

 themselves, have been carried away by what has been 

 done in the south, where the physical character of 

 the country is very different ; and by pursuing this 

 course, which is unquestionably not the wisest one, 

 they do mischief with the "best intentions," and, like 

 other labourers in the same vocation, glory in the 

 doing of it. 



The Slack-faced heath, or mountain, sheep appear 

 to have been the original breed in all the hilly pails 

 of the north of England and of Scotland, excepting 

 the extreme north and the isles. They are still the 

 prevailing sheep in a considerable range of the coun- 

 try, especially on the hills of the rainy tract, through 

 part of Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and 

 Scotland, till they meet with the northern sheep, 

 which, hardy as the black-faced breed, are still bet- 

 ter able to endure the extreme severity of climate. 

 They are in fact an exceedingly valuable breed ; and, 

 notwithstanding the smallness of their carcasses and 

 the coarseness of their wool, it is probable that the 

 replacing of them by more delicate breeds, has not 

 been very wisely undertaken in many of the more 

 bleak parts of the country. 



They are easily known from all others by their 

 black faces and legs, and by the large size of the horns 

 in the males, which appear of harder and firmer con- 

 sistency than those of almost any other sheep. They 

 are also bold and daring animals, and of hardy con- 

 stitution, not liable to the foot rot, even in traversing 

 the boggy parts of the Grampians. The writer of 

 this article has, in the course of his rambles among 

 those delightful mountains, often met with the remains 

 of sheep which had stuck in the mire, or fallen over 

 precipices, but he never heard of disease among the 

 black- faced flocks, though he often has among the 

 other breeds that have been introduced by ivay of 

 improvement ; and this has again and again led to 

 regret that those who have the wish and the means of 

 improving the districts in which they reside will avoid 

 what is before their eyes every day, and ground their 

 proceedings upon what is projected or done in coun- 

 tries which have no resemblance to theirs, and very 

 often by mere compilers of books, who have no ac- 

 quaintance with the subjects of which they profess to 

 treat. 



The wool upon these sheep is coarse and shaggy, 

 and may be compared to hair rather than the fine 

 wool of the southern parts of the country. But there 

 is a point here which is worthy of being considered, 

 although often left out of the consideration ; and that 

 is, tne durability of the wool. Under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, the durability should increase as the 

 square of the fibre, upon the supposition that the 

 substance is of the same kind. But the fact is that 

 the durability of the wool is in proportion to the har- 

 dihood of the animal upon which it grows ; and there 

 are many living who can remember how long the old 

 fabrics, made of the wool of the black-faced sheep, 

 lasted, in comparison with those of the present day, 

 even on the supposition that there was the same 

 weight of material in each of them. Mechanical im- 

 provements may have rendered the modern fabric 

 cheaper than the old ones ; but we would ask, what 

 advantage is gained by a reduction of half the price 



