32 THE SHEEP. 



its protector to join its fellows of the flock. In countries 

 where the shepherd guides his flock, and does not herd it by 

 dogs in the manner practised in other places, the docility 

 which the animals acquire is wonderfully great. Where the 

 shepherd leads they follow ; they observe his motions and 

 hear his voice, and when he uses a pipe or horn, they listen 

 to the well-known sound, and obey the signal. In the Alps 

 of Switzerland^ and in the mountainous parts of Italy, in 

 Greece, and elsewhere, we are yet charmed with this rem- 

 nant of pastoral simplicity and innocence. The shepherd 

 boy knows all his little favourites, he remembers their 

 names, and, when called, they leave the flock and come to 

 him. When the numbers are great, he selects a few, teaches 

 them their simple lesson, and they become the guides of the 

 rest to their allotted pastures, and learn to collect the wan- 

 derers. The music of the mountain shepherd we find to be 

 no poetic fiction. In the mountains of the South, we yet 

 hear the soft and artless tones of his pipe. In the morning 

 he leads forth his little flock, and plays as he marches at their 

 head, and at sunset returns in like manner to the fold, where 

 he pens them, that they may be kept from the wolves. 



The fur of the Sheep consists partly of hair, but essentially 

 of w r ool. In cold, moist.) and elevated countries, the hair 

 often becomes so long as to cover the wool ; and when the 

 wool falls off in the early part of summer, the covering of 

 hair remains to protect the animal. In warm countries, the 

 wool is often scarcely developed, and nearly the whole coat 

 is of hair, just as in the case of the Deer, the Antelope, and 

 the Goat ; yet this is not always the case, even in the warmer 

 countries, in which the fur is sometimes fleecy, soft, and thin. 

 Often the wool is long, and the filaments thick, without being 

 hairy, as in the case of the Sheep of the richer plains of Eng- 

 land ; sometimes it is short, fine, and curling, as in the case 

 of the Mountain Sheep of Spain. We can sometimes trace 

 the influence of climate in modifying the characters of wool, 

 but often it is affected by causes which we are unable to dis- 



