FRENCH AND AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERDS. 65 



their proper orders, they return to their station at the 

 head of the flock with the greatest regularity. On 

 coming to a stream, they halt until the word of com- 

 mand is given, when they plunge into the water, and 

 are followed by the rest of the flock. When the flocks 

 reach the mountains, each shepherd has his proper 

 boundary marked out, and the proprietors of the land 

 are paid about twenty-pence per sheep for their feed 

 during the summer. The shepherds sleep with their 

 flocks in the open air, and live almost entirely on bread 

 and goats' milk. 



In the south-west of France, on those wide plains 

 called Les Landes, the shepherds lead a very singular life. 

 The country consists of large tracts of deep sand, or 

 marshy ground, with scanty herbage and prickly shrubs. 

 That they may cross these sands without difficulty, the 

 shepherds fasten stilts, or wooden poles five feet loug to 

 their legs, putting them on and off as regularly as any 

 other part of their dress. When their flocks are grazing, 

 they do not take off these stilts, but remain elevated 

 upon them, that they may the better watch their sheep. 

 The top of the long staff which they use in walking is 

 made broad and round, so that they can sit upon it. 

 Thus seated, they knit stockings all day, and, clad in 

 their rough sheep-skin coats and caps, they have a most 

 singular appearance, looking like,, so many little watch- 

 towers scattered over the country. The rate at which 

 they can travel on these tall stilts is said to equal that 

 of a trotting horse. 



The life of the Australian shepherd is also a laborious 

 one, although his flock does not take such long journeys. 

 Some of the sheep-owners in Australia possess fifteen or 

 twenty thousand sheep, and these are led out to graze 

 before sunrise, and folded or brought back to the sheep- 

 yard at night. The wild dogs of that country are 

 great enemies to the sheep, and will sometimes fall upon 

 them in open day. The shepherd is, therefore, always 

 on the watch; and in setting up his fold, he uses 

 F 



