THE CHEVIOT BREED. 95 



heath, and require a larger range of pastures to support an 

 equal number of animals. 



The Cheviot Sheep have spread from their native mountains 

 to a large extent of country. They now cover a great part of 

 the elevated moors from which the Black-faced Heath Sheep 

 were derived. They have spread over the southern moun- 

 tains of Scotland, supplanting to a great extent the Heath 

 Breed, which previously existed. They have been carried be- 

 yond the Grampians to the extreme north of Scotland, where 

 they are reared in increasing numbers. To the late Sir John 

 Sinclair is due the honour of having first carried them to 

 the county of Caithness. But in some cases they have been 

 placed in situations to which the coarser Heath Breed would 

 have been better adapted, and many farmers, after experi- 

 ence of the effect, have reverted to the ancient race. The 

 breed, however, has a greatly more extensive range than has 

 yet been assigned to it ; for it is evident that the Cheviot, 

 like every breed of Sheep, has the property of adapting itself 

 to the country in which it is naturalized. Thus, the Sheep 

 which are reared in the north of Scotland must give birth to 

 a hardier race than is produced in the lower mountains of the 

 south ; and thus we may expect to see the range of the breed 

 gradually extended, and narrowing the bounds occupied by 

 the coarser Black-faced. The extension that has already 

 taken place of this hardy breed, must be regarded as having 

 been of singular benefit to breeders and the country. It has 

 been recently carried to the west of England and Wales, and 

 has every where been found suited to a cold and mountain- 

 ous country. In its native country of the Cheviot Hills, it 

 has been cultivated with great care by a class of breeders 

 inferior to none in the kingdom for intelligence and enter- 

 prise ; and thus breeders from every part of the kingdom 

 have the power of resorting to the native districts of the 

 breed, for the means of maintaining their stocks in a state of 

 purity. 



The wool of this breed weighs about three and a half pounds 



