CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. GARNI V OR A. 



213 



THE SHEEP-DOG, OR SHEPHERD S DOG. 



a beautiful animal ; for he was almost black, and had a grim face, striped with dark brown. I 

 thought I perceived a sort of sullen intelligence in his countenance, notwithstanding his dejected 

 and forlorn appearance, and I bought him. He was scarcely a year old, and knew so little of 

 herding, that he had never turned a sheep in his life ; but, as soon as he discovered that it was 

 his duty to do so, and that it obliged me, I can never forget with what anxiety and eagerness he 

 learned his different evolutions ; and when I once made him understand a direction, he never 

 forgot oi' mistook it." 



One night, a large flock of lambs that were under the Ettrick Shepherd's care, frightened by 

 something, scampered away in three different directions across the hills, in spite of all that he 

 could do to keep them together. " Sirrah," said the shepherd, " they're a' awa !" 



It was too dark for the do<j and his master to see each other at any considerable distance, 

 but Sirrah understood him, and set off after the fugitives. The night passed on, and Hogg and 

 his assistant traversed every neighboring hill in anxious but fruitless search for the lambs ; but 

 he could hear nothing of them nor of the dog, and he was returning to his master with the 

 doleful intelligence that he had lost all his lambs. "On our way home, however," says he, "we 

 discovered a lot of lambs at the bottom of a deep ravine called the Flesh Cleuch, and the inde- 

 fatigable Sirrah standing in front of them, looking round for some relief, but still true to- his 

 charge. We concluded that it was one of the divisions which Sirrah had been unable to manage, 

 until he came to that commanding situation. But what was our astonishment when we dis- 

 covered that not one lamb of the flock was missing ! How he had got all the divisions collected 

 in the dark, is beyond my comprehension. The charge was left entirely to himself from midnight 

 until the rising sun ; and, if all the shepherds in the forest had been there to have assisted him, 

 they could not have effected it with greater promptitude. All that I can say is, that I never felt 

 so grateful to any creature under the sun as I did to my honest Sirrah that morning." 



A shepherd, in one of his excursions over the Grampian Hills to collect his scattered flock, took 

 with him — according to a common practice, to initiate them in their future business — one of his 

 children about four years old. After traversing his pastures for a while, attended by his dog, 

 he was compelled to ascend a summit at some distance. As the ascent was too great for the 

 child, he left him at the bottom, with strict injunctions not to move from the .place. Scarcely, 

 , however, had he gained the height, when one of the Scotch mists, of .frequent occurrence, sud- 

 denly came on, and almost changed the day to night. He returned to seek his child, but was 

 unable to find him, and concluded a long and fruitless search by coming distracted to his cottage. 

 His poor dog also was missing in the general confusion. On the next morning by daylight he 

 .renewed his search, but again he came back without his child. He found, however, that during 



