

THE BLACK-FACED HEATH BREED. 85 



The Black-faced Heath Breed is chiefly found in the more 

 northerly division of the chain of mountains referred to, be- 

 ginning in the heathy lands of Yorkshire and Lancashire. 

 It extends across the vales of Kendal and Eden to the higher 

 mountains of Cumberland and Westmoreland on the west, 

 and by the Carter Fell into Scotland, where it occupies the 

 great range of the greywacke hills stretching from St Abb's 

 Head on the east to the Irish Channel on the west. It 

 stretches through the upper part of Lanarkshire into Argyle- 

 shire, and all through the Highlands of Scotland, from the 

 Grampians to the Pentland Firth. It has spread to all the 

 Hebrides, and even to the Islands of Orkney and Zetland. 



This breed may be supposed to have found its way into 

 Scotland by the mountains of the north of England. It has 

 been settled for a period unknown in all the high lands of 

 the countries of Roxburgh, Dumfries, Selkirk, Peebles, La- 

 nark, and the adjoining districts. Tradition asserts that it 

 was introduced into Etterick Forest by one of the Kings of 

 Scotland, but it is rather to be believed that it found its way 

 into the Border counties by the natural route of the moun- 

 tains. Its introduction into Argyleshire, and the Central and 

 Northern Highlands, has been of very recent origin, having 

 taken place about the middle of last century, when Sheep 

 began to supersede the herds of cattle which then abounded 

 in the Highlands. By degrees, it displaced the ancient races 

 of the country, of which only scattered remnants now exist. 



The Black-faced Heath Breed possesses characters which 

 distinguish it from every other in the British Islands. It is of 

 the smaller races of Sheep with respect to the weight at which 

 it arrives, but it is larger and more robust than the Zetland, 

 the Welsh, and the ancient Soft-woolled Sheep which it dis- 

 placed. It somewhat resembles the Persian, so that it might 

 be conjectured that it is derived from the East. But it is 

 more natural to assume that its peculiar characters have been 

 communicated to it by the effects of food and climate, in the 



