SPANISH SHEEr, MERIXOS, ETC. 67 



The sheep are turned back as they are shorn into the second 

 apartment, and on the following day continue their journey: 

 thus in the space of six days, as many flocks, each consist- 

 ing of a thousand sheep, pass through the esquilo (shearing 

 hut), and leave their fleeces behind them. The wool is 

 then cleansed with water and soap and sorted in the esquilo, 

 and is ready for sale." 



A writer in the Encyclopedia Londonensis states the fol- 

 lowing : " The management of the Spanish flocks is pecu- 

 liarly Roman, and shows the Italian origin of these sheep. 

 The Merino mayoral corresponds exactly with the magister 

 jjecoris of Varro and Columella. The pra'^tice of destroy- 

 ing half the sheep at their birth, and of suckling each of the 

 survivors on two ewes ; of sweating the sheep before they 

 were shorn, in order to increase the softness of the fleece, 

 and of conducting them from their high winter to their sum- 

 mer stations, by long journeys through public sheep walks, 

 have been derived from Roman institutions." 



Mr. Youatt condensed Arthur Young's account of the 

 Catalonian or Pyrenean breed, as here presented : — 



" The journeys of these sheep are smaller, and performed 

 in a diff'erent manner. On the northern side of the Spanish 

 portion of the Pyrenees are two mountains, the sides of which 

 are covered with short, but plentiful herbage, and from one 

 to the other of which the sheep are continually travelling 

 during the summer. In the winter they are sent into the 

 lower part of Catalonia, a journey of twelve or thirteen days, 

 and when the snow begins to melt in the spring they are 

 conducted back again to the mountains ; thus they are kept 

 the whole year in motion : they are never housed or under 

 cover, and never taste of any food but what they find for 

 themselves. 



" Mr. Young had the opportunity of examining a flock of 

 these Catalonian sheep, consisting of about 2000. They 

 were generally polled, but a few, both of the rams and ewes, 

 had horns. The legs were white or reddish — the faces, 

 some white, some red, and some speckled, and some with a 

 tuft of wool on their faces : the carcase was round, the back 

 straight : they were in good condition : would weigh, when 

 fat, from 15 to 18 pounds per quarter, and resembled, on the 

 whole, the South Down breeds. 



" Mr. Young wished to examine them more closely, and in- 

 timated this to the shepherd, who immediately walked into 



