6 NATURAL HISTORY [Quadrupeds. 



purpose, every man was not allowed to keep these, but, to 

 hinder all dishonesty, only a few were to be named by the 

 parish bailie, and who were to be registered in his books, and 

 for whom this officer was to be answerable ; these alone were 

 to keep sheep-dogs, and to these or the bailie must every 

 man apply upon every occasion when his part of the com- 

 mon flock was concerned ; at their sight he was to buy, sell, 

 mark, row, or kill ; and, without these precautions, no man 

 durst intermeddle without being habit and repute a thief, and 

 prosecuted accordingly. To ascertain the property, every 

 man was to fix upon some particular mark, which was to be 

 registered in a parish book, and affixed at a certain season of 

 the year, likewise before the bailie, or his* lawright-men ; and 

 the time of rowing was intimated by proclamation, when all 

 were to attend, and in public claim their own. 



The breed of sheep in Orkney is but small, and there is 

 now but little care taken for their improvement, all the fore- 

 going regulations being now in disuse. They, as was said be- 

 fore, are never housed, which, with their natural timidity, 

 makes them remarkably wild, and has given a handle to many 

 to assert, that Orkney sheep were hunted like other game. 

 Though this is but in some measure true, yet these mild and 

 gentle animals, which seem particularly adapted by Provi- 

 -dence to supply us with the clothing, &c. we, by nature, so 

 much want I say, they seem here to be no favourites, but 

 left to every storm, and to perish by every enemy. The 



* A sort of assessors to the parish bailie. 



