THE SHEPHERD'S, OR SHEEP DOG. 15 



never witnessed the immense accumulation of .snow which takes place during sonic severe winters in the 

 mountainous districts of the north of England and of Scotland, would scarcely credit the length, breadth, 

 and depth of some of the masses formed among such elevations. There, a thaw is long in coming. 

 In every mountain district of the north, indeed, there are snow-drifts that never wholly dissolve or 

 disappear, l>ut fragments of which remain from season to season, and from year to year. They lie in 

 the hollows and declivities of the mountains, chiefly where the aspect is northerly, despite the frequent 

 and copious falls of the spring and autumnal rains, to which those districts are peculiarly liable, and the 

 dissolving power of the gentle summer breezes. In these upland districts but small quantities of grain 

 are grown ; but sheep-farmers are numerous, and the flocks sometimes amount to 1,000 or 2,000. 



Though sheep, like most other animals, are prepared for danger, they do not always adopt the best 

 course. When a storm is approaching they are seldom taken by surprise ; in fact, before it actually 

 comes on, they endeavour to find a place of shelter from its fury. But in mountain snow-storms it 

 often happens that the places of defence from the bitter and piercing blast are fraught with the greatest 

 perils. There the drifting snow accumulates in vast masses ; and while the flocks that have sought 

 shelter are comparatively warm and comfortable, the drift speedily accumulates in such a manner 

 as to render all attempts at retreat impracticable. 



Tims it sometimes happens that in the space of a very few hours some scores, and even hundreds, 

 of sheep become buried beneath the snow to the depth of several feet. The best plan for their 

 extraction, when it can lie adopted, is the employment of dogs, sometimes called sheep-setters or sheep- 

 h'nders, which ai'e of no particular breed, though, for the most part, belonging to the cur species. 



One of these, named Corby, was large and black, strong-limbed, long and lean-bodied, shaggy- 

 coated, with a little white on the breast as well as between the eyes. His ears were like those of the 

 common cur, and his tail was large and long. He was docile, sagacious, courageous, and faithful; and 

 when he grew up he showed an extraordinary sense of smelling, particularly as regarded sheep, and 

 hence he soon became the most renowned sheep-setter through a wide range of country. Scarcely any 

 services were therefore required of him, except after a severe snow-storm, when he was called upon to 

 exercise his peculiar gift, which, for many years, he lived to do with wonderful success. 



Corby always took advantage of the wind where that was practicable, and the moment he received 

 the charge, "Seek the sheep be careful," his whole attention was bestowed on the portions of the 

 snow-drift that were pointed ovtt to him. With his nose close to the surface of the snow, his eyes 

 beaming with intelligence, and anxiously watching every motion of the person that accompanied him, 

 his ears in the attitude of listening, as if he expected it to assist the sense of smelling, he traversed the, 

 hard, soft, or slippery drift. 



When he first ascertained that buried sheep were not far off, he would then examine, with 

 peculiar caution, every part of the surrounding stirface, until he seemed to satisfy himself of their 

 precise locality, and then he would commence scratching away the snow with all his might. This \vas 

 a sure signal for those who earned shovels to commence digging, but Corby was never satisfied unless 

 he were allowed to continue his scratching, as if he were anxious to set the imprisoned sheep at liberty 

 as soon as possible. In a single severe winter this dog has been known to have thus found upwards or 

 three hundred sheep, and though many might have been rescued by other means, a large number, but 

 for him, must have inevitably perished. 



The Ettrick Shepherd, already referred to, describes himself and others as, after a great fall 01 

 snow, coming to the ground where, the sheep should have been, but not one of them was to be seen. 

 Here and there, at a great distance from each other, they could afterwards perceive the heads or horns 

 of stragglers ; these were easily got out, but no more could then be found. They had been lying all 

 abroad in a scattered state, on a kind of sloping ground that lay half beneath the wind, when the 

 storm came on, and they were covered over, just as they were lying, to the depth of six or eight feet, 

 scattered over at least a hundred acres of heathery ground. 



The men went about boring with long poles a plan sometimes adopted, as persons aecustomed to their 

 use can readily distinguish by them the woolly coat of a sheep from any other substance, even from 

 the bushy or elastic heath, or the softer bent and mountain moss. But this was, as usual, a slow 

 prm -ess, and often they did not lind one sheep in a quarter of an hour. At length a white, shagg\ 

 collie, named .Sparkie, that belonged to the cowherd boy, seemed to comprehend the perplexity of the 



