THE SHEEP. 19 



Sea, and had now reached the western extremity of 

 Europe. Some of them continued to exist as a distinct 

 race, and were the ancestors of the merinoes of the pre- 

 sent day. These wander not, like others, from the dis- 

 trict or the property on which they are bred, and amount 

 to about two millions. 



As the pastures in ancient times consisted of immense 

 plains, or of abrupt alternations of hill and dale, with 

 many a tangled copse and forest, so that the sheep were 

 sometimes beyond the sight of the keeper, and even his 

 voice, he had a horn or pipe, the sounds of which the 

 leaders of the flock instantly obeyed. The same means 

 have been used in later days. Goldsmith says, " Before 

 I had seen the sheep trained in this manner, I had no 

 conception of those descriptions in the old pastoral 

 poets, of the shepherd leading his flock from one 

 country to another. As I had been used to see these 

 harmless creatures driven before their keepers, I sup- 

 posed that all the rest was pure invention j but in 

 many parts of the Alps, and even in some provinces of 

 France, the shepherd and his pipe are continued with 

 true antique simplicity. The flock is regularly penned 

 every evening, to preserve them from the wolf ; and the 

 shepherd returns homeward at sunset, with his sheep 

 following him, and seemingly pleased with the sound 



