THE DOG. 135 



could dig them out, and ten times faster, for he some- 

 times had twenty or thirty holes marked beforehand. 



" We got out three hundred of that division before 

 night, and about half as many on the other parts of the 

 farm, in addition to those we had rescued the day be- 

 fore ; and the greatest part of these would have been 

 lost had it not been for the voluntary exertions of Spar- 

 kie. Before the snow went away (which lay only 

 eight days) we had got out every sheep on the farm, 

 either dead or alive, except four ; and that these were 

 not found was not Sparkie's fault, for, though they 

 were buried below a mountain of snow at least fifty feet 

 deep, he had again and again marked on the top of it 

 above them. The sheep were all living when we found 

 them ; but those that were buried in the snow to a cer- 

 tain depth, being, I suppose, in a warm, half-suffocated 

 state, though on being taken out they bounded away 

 like roes, were instantly after paralyzed by the sudden 

 change of atmosphere, and fell down, deprived of all 

 power in their limbs. We did not, however, lose 

 above sixty in all ; but I am certain Sparkie saved us 

 at least two hundred." 



A shepherd's dog may render, however, a greater ser- 

 vice. Among the Grampian mountains, there are glens 

 chiefly inhabited by shepherds ; and the pastures over 



