4 NATURAL HISTORY [Quadrupeds. 



is but coarse, but serves many useful purposes in the soap- 

 works, for cart and coach-wheels, grease, laying of sheep, c. 

 and, of consequence, is sold high, sometimes at L. 3 odd a 

 barrel, which is more than the best is sold for. 



The other articles of merchandize drawn from our cattle, 

 besides beef, of which, one year with another, about a ton 

 may be exported, are hides, tallow, and smoked tongues, 

 which all sell well, and answer our merchants' credit for the 

 few articles required in these parts, and which is entirely con- 

 fined to those fitted for home consumption. 



GENUS III. THE SHEEP. 



Ovis, Rail Syn. Quad. 73. Ovis Aries, Lin. Sys. 97. Penn. Brit. Zool. I. 22. 



Ejusd. Syn. 10. 



IN this description of the domestic animals, I would not be 

 understood to place this, or any of the foregoing, as natives 

 of these islands ; perhaps none of them are, though it is hard 

 to say at what period they have been introduced : all I mean, 

 by giving them a place here, is to shew in what manner our 

 economy depends upon them, and how they are treated with 

 us, compared with the rest of the world. 



This most useful animal seems to have been formerly a great- 

 er object with the inhabitants of Orkney than it is now. In 

 the Orkney acts, I find many with relation to the manage- 



