BREEDS OF THE ZETLAND AND ORKNEY ISLANDS. 59 



These Sheep have acquired the characters which fit them 

 for the condition in which they are placed. The country 

 which they inhabit possesses a climate eminently cold and 

 humid, and is exposed to continual gusts and storms. Scarce 

 a tree is to be found, or a shrubby plant, beyond the heath 

 which covers the soil. Many of the islets are little else than 

 rocks, with a covering of peat, washed by the spray of the 

 boisterous seas which surround them, and occupied only by a 

 few Sheep left to find their own food. Under these circum- 

 stances, the Sheep are small in size, but hardy, and capable 

 of subsisting under great privations of food. The wethers 

 may be fattened, on a medium, to 6 or 7 lb. the quarter. At 

 certain seasons they find their way from the mountains to the 

 shores, and feed on the fuci and other marine plants. It is 

 remarkable to see them, on the receding of the tide, running 

 down from the hills, as if possessing an instinctive knowledge 

 of the time of ebb. They remain feeding while the sea allows ; 

 and sometimes they are caught by the surrounding tide and 

 drowned. Sometimes they are unable, from exhaustion, to 

 ascend again the cliffs of the coast, and so perish ; sometimes 

 they are driven into coves, where they are imprisoned until 

 the retiring tide permits them to escape. It is remarkable 

 that these Sheep feed readily on animal substances. One of 

 the greatest resources in some of the islands for keeping 

 them, when no other provender exists, is fish, which are dried 

 on the rocky shores for that purpose. These Sheep manifest, 

 in their habits, the rudeness of their condition. The rams 

 will often set upon the other sheep of the flock if wounded, 

 and destroy them. They will furiously attack the females 

 and new-born lambs, as if, in the dreary circumscribed islets 

 which they inhabit, they had acquired the instinct of endea- 

 vouring to prevent the too great multiplication of their num- 

 bers. The ewes, conscious of the danger, make their escape 

 at the time of lambing, that they may bring forth their young 

 in secret. When brought to the richer countries, these wild 

 creatures make every effort to escape from the enclosures 



