244 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXXV. 



long and weary crawl and scramble being suddenly 

 warned of its danger by the cry of the sheep, a 

 loud sound between a hiss and a whistle. No 

 sooner does the reel-deer hear a sheep utter this 

 warning cry than he starts to his feet as if he had 

 heard a rifle-shot, and is off in an instant. Nor 

 does the red-deer ever mistake the direction from 

 which the danger is to be feared. Guided by the 

 appearance of the sheep, he sees at once which way 

 to go in order to avoid his unseen enemy. 



Mountain sheep have a great foreknowledge of 

 alterations in the weather ; and I have frequently 

 seen them changing their ground in a body before 

 the commencement of a storm, which as yet was 

 not foreseen by myself. Nevertheless, the sheep- 

 farmer occasionally suffers great loss by drifting 

 storms of snow towards the end of winter, when the 

 sheep are weak and in poor condition. The length 

 of time that sheep will exist under snow is as- 

 tonishing, particularly when a number are buried 

 together, the warmth of their breath and bodies 

 keeping an open space round them sufficient for 

 breathing room. Floods occasionally carry them 

 off from the low lands near the mountain streams ; 

 and yet they are by no means bad swimmers. I 

 have seen black-faced sheep actually swim into a 

 creek of the sea to escape the pursuit of a dog ; 



