112 BRITISH BREEDS. 



protection, when the shepherd himself sees not a cloud, and 

 " dreams not of the wind." " I had left," says one of these 

 mountain shepherds, " my sheep under their accustomed shel- 

 ter, and where I had never failed to find them safe and com- 

 fortable in the morning, and I was plodding my weary way 

 homeward ; but before distance and darkness closed them from 

 my sight for the night, I looked back to see if they had given 

 over work (digging for their food from under the snow), when 

 I was surprised to see them on their march down hill towards 

 a plantation which would afford securer shelter, and to which 

 I had been accustomed to drive them when I feared the 

 coming tempest. They had fallen into rows, pacing one 

 after another until they reached the plantation, and there was 

 nothing to suggest to my mind the return of a drift, but their 

 movement and their bleating. They passed through the 

 plantation, and took that side of it which would afford them 

 a safe shelter from the southwest hurricanes. It, however, 

 happened that, although their instinct had admonished them 

 that a tempest was impending, it had not taught them from 

 what quarter that tempest would come, and it soon began to 

 blow from the northeast, from which they had no defence. 

 When I came to them in the morning, the wreath was higher 

 than the dyke, and was leaning over upon the trees. Some 

 of the strongest sheep had kept treading down the snow as 

 it gathered around them, and were on the top of the wreath ; 

 but many of them further back were quite immersed in the 

 snow. However, by means of probing and digging, I got 

 them all out, except two that had been crushed by the weight 

 of the snow." 



Instances are recorded showing an almost incredible te- 

 nacity of life, when covered with snowdrift. A sheep near 

 Kendal was, in the winter of 1800, buried in the snow thirty- 

 three days and nights, without the possibility of moving, 

 and yet surviv^ed. In the same winter, a sheep near Caldbeck, 

 in Cumberland, was buried thirty-eight days ; when found it 

 had completely eaten the wool olF both its sides, and was re- 

 duced to a skeleton.* 



Within the last twenty years much attention has been paid 

 to smearing the sheep of the Highland districts with a com- 

 position of tar and whale oil, which mats the wool, and 

 shields the animal alike from cold and wet. 



* Annual Register. 



