THE DARTMOOR AND EXMOOR SHEEP. 



97 



THE DARTMOOR SHEEP. 



The Dartmoor sheep of to-day are a large, long-woolled 

 variety rivalling in size the Cotswold, Lincoln or Romney 

 Marsh breeds. They are the result of crossing the original 

 Dartmoor sheep with Leicesters and Lincolns and do not give 

 the idea of a forest or mountain race. They must be very 

 different indeed from the "wild Dartmoor sheep" or " ugly 

 old Dartmoors" of which Youatt speaks. At the Plymouth 

 meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society there was a fine 

 show of Dartmoor sheep which appeared about as like to the 

 old-fashioned Dartmoor breed as a London alderman might 

 be to an ancient Briton. Allowing for the influences of show- 

 yard training, we can only now regard the Dartmoor as one 

 of the heavy long-woolled, hornless and white-faced races of 

 sheep, with such an amount of the old nature as suffices to 

 enure him to the severe winters of his native home. 



THE EXMOOR SHEEP. 



As in the case of the Dartmoor breed of sheep, time has 

 wrought great changes during the last fifty years. Then the 

 sheep of both Dartmoor and Exmoor appear to have been 

 similar to the Dorset Horns, although some were polled. 

 They were small in the head and neck, small in bone every- 

 where ; the carcase was narrow and flat-sided, and they weighed 

 when fat from 9 to 12 Ibs. per quarter. They were the material 

 from which the celebrated Okehampton mutton was derived, 

 and they carried a fleece of rather short middle- wool weighing 

 from 3 to 4 Ibs. of coarse and inferior quality. Even then 

 the Leicesters were working wonders with the Devonshire 

 aboriginal sheep, and the result is seen in the remarkable 

 improvement and complete change in size and appearance 

 which has taken place. If space permitted we could give 

 instances of the wild nature and roaming habits of the original 

 Exmoors, but sufficient has been said to show that they were 

 a genuine forest or moorland breed before they were crossed 

 7 



