66 EUROPEAN SHEEP. 



may acquire sufficient strength for their approaching journey. 

 The skins of the slaughtered lambs are sent into Portugal, 

 and thence find their way to England, where they are used 

 for the manufacture of gloves. The wool is soft and silky, 

 and is formed into little rings or curls. 



" Few of the male lambs are castrated, because it is be- 

 lieved that the weight of the fleece is much increased on the 

 ram, without acquiring proportional coarseness. The shep- 

 herd, however, early in March, has four operations to per- 

 form on the lambs : he cuts off their tails five inches below 

 the rump, for the sake of cleanliness : he marks them on the 

 nose with a hot iron : he cuts off the tips of their horns that 

 they may not hurt each other in their frolicks, and he cas- 

 trates those which, from their superior strength, and superior 

 size, he has selected to become bell-wethers, and lead the 

 flock in their peregrinations. 



" It is supposed that forty or fifty thousand men are em- 

 ployed in these peregrinations of the sheep. They are a 

 singular race of men, enthusiastically attached to their pro- 

 fession, rarely quitting it, even for a more lucrative one, and 

 rarely marrying. The number of dogs kept for the purpose 

 of guarding the sheep exceeds thirty thousand. 



" The shearing does not delay the flock more than a day. 

 Buildings are erected at various places in the early portion 

 of their journey ; they are very simply constructed, and con- 

 sist only of two large rooms, each of which will contain 

 more than a thousand sheep : there is also a narrow, low, 

 long hut adjoining, termed the sweating house. The sheep 

 are all driven into one of these apartments, and in the even- 

 ing those intended to be shorn on the following day are 

 transferred into the low, long hut. As many are forced into 

 it as it will possibly hold, and there they are left during the 

 night. As some are liberated in the morning, the others 

 are urged towards the end of the hut, while more from the 

 apartment occupy their situation. In consequence of this 

 close confinement they are thrown into a state of great per- 

 spiration ; the yolk, which formed a somewhat hard crust on 

 the fleece, is melted, and thus the whole is rendered softer, 

 and is more easily cut. There is no previous washing, nor 

 any other preparation for the shearing. From 150 to 200 

 shearers are generally collected, and a flock of a thousand 

 sheep is disposed of in a day, although five rams or eight 

 ewes are reckoned a good day's work for a Spanish shearer ! 



