134 BRITISH QUADRUPEDS. 



Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, has given some fearful 

 tales of storms in the Highlands of Scotland. After 

 referring to one of them, he says : " When we came to 

 the ground where the sheep should have heen, there 

 was not one of them above the snow. Here and there, 

 at a great distance from each other, we could perceive 

 the heads or horns of stragglers appearing, and these 

 were easily got out ; but when we had collected these 

 few, we couM find no more. They had been lying all 

 abroad in a scattered state when the storm came on, 

 and were covered over just as they had been lying. It 

 was on a kind of sloping ground, that lay half beneath 

 the wind, and the snow was uniformly from six to eight 

 feet deep. Under this the animals were lying scattered 

 over at least one hundred acres of heathery ground. It 

 was a very ill-looking concern. We went about boring 

 with our long poles, and often did not find one sheep 

 in a quarter of an hour. But at length a white shaggy 

 colly, named Sparkie, that belonged to the cowherd 

 boy, seemed to have comprehended something of our 

 perplexity, for we observed him plying and scraping in 

 the snow with great violence, and always looking over 

 his shoulder to us. On going to the spot, we found 

 that he had marked straight above a sheep. From that 

 he flew to another, and so on to another, as fast as we 



