BREEDS OF THE ZETLAND AND ORKNEY ISLANDS. 61 



their own resources in the bleak and desolate islands in which 

 they are imprisoned. They are collected by being hunted to- 

 gether once a-year, stripped of their fleeces, marked by their 

 respective owners, and then turned adrift, until such as sur- 

 vive are caught again in the following year, and subjected to 

 the same treatment. In all cases, the number of Rams is 

 allowed to be disproportioned to that of the Ewes ; and, in 

 many cases, the number of the sexes are nearly equal. When 

 Sheep are wanted from the pastures, they are run down by 

 dogs ; and hence these poor creatures acquire as great a ter- 

 ror for the dog as in other countries they do for the wolf or 

 other beasts of prey. The dogs, termed Had or Sheep Dogs, 

 are taught to select a particular Sheep, and run him down ; 

 and curious old laws existed regarding the property and con- 

 trol of these animals. Under the whole of this barbarous 

 system, the mortality is excessive ; all the profit to be de- 

 rived from a proper management of a flock of sheep is lost ; 

 and all the means are foregone of improving the breed, by the 

 selection of the male and female parents. 



It is painful to draw such a picture of neglect, as appli- 

 cable to the rural economy of any part of a country like Bri- 

 tain. Yet it is consoling to know that the seeds of improve- 

 ment are scattered in these long-neglected Islands. In seve- 

 ral of them are settled various landed gentlemen, who are 

 equal in intelligence to any in the kingdom, and who have 

 begun to give the due attention to the resources of their 

 country. The efforts of such individuals to improve the do- 

 mestic animals of their estates cannot fail to meet with suc- 

 cess, nor the benefits of their example to be gradually dif- 

 fused. The power of steam has further been called into ope- 

 ration, to bring those remote Islands into contact with the 

 markets of the South ; and now the breeders, instead of suf- 

 fering their Sheep to become the prey of eagles, ravens, and 

 gulls, and to perish through hunger and neglect, have the 

 means of carrying their rich and delicate mutton direct to the 

 best markets of consumption in the kingdom. 



