22O O'er Crag and Torrent 



parallel hurdles just wide enough apart to 

 allow one sheep to pass through at a time 

 one after another, in a fixed direction. This 

 was a stumbling-block to many. After 

 negotiating this difficulty, the dog had to 

 drive his sheep to the other side of the 

 twenty-acre field to the most serious obstacle 

 of all, called double or parallel lanes, made 

 with hurdles like the single lane, but forming 

 two distinct passages adjoining ; and it was 

 required that the sheep should be driven 

 slowly through one lane, then brought round 

 again, and be made to pass in the same way 

 down the other. This really was a most 

 severe trial, and tested the patience of the 

 man and the perfect obedience and training 

 of the dog most thoroughly for this reason, 

 that the dog had not only to guard and keep 

 three wild sheep together, but he had at the 

 same time to watch his handler's every 

 minute sign or motion ; at one moment 



