508 THE COMMON SHEEP. 



endurance for the service of mankind, it may be mentioned, 

 that, in Thibet, sheep are not only prized for their flesh and 

 fleece, but as beasts of burden, each animal carrying from 

 twelve to twenty pounds weight. Captain Batten says, that in 

 the Himalaya mountains " flocks upon flocks of sheep, carrying 

 loads of grain or salt and borax, according as they are going to 

 or coming from Bhote, are continually met with, guarded by 

 the savage Thibet dogs, and the still more savage Bhoteans 

 and wandering Tartarian beggars." 



The ewe goes with young five months, and generally pro- 

 duces two lambs at each yeaning, or birth. In the Lincoln 

 Gazette, of April 2, 1839, it was recorded, that an ewe, belonging 

 to Mr. Stacey, of Bothamsall, near Retford, had, in the course 

 of six years, yeaned as many as sixteen lambs, twice producing 

 twins, and three annually during the last four years. The ewe 

 herself was one of four from the same mother, and had been 

 brought up as a cade, that is to say, it had been weaned and 

 reared in the house. tf It hath been scene in Gelderland, that 

 five ewes have had, in one yeere, twenty-five lambs : it may 

 seem, peradventure, to many incredible, and yet it is not a 

 great marvaile, since they have twice a yeere mostly two, and 

 sometimes six at a time."* Cross-breeds, or hybrids, have 

 been produced between the sheep and the goat. In the Gentle- 

 man Farmer (page 15), it is stated by Lord Kames, that the ewe, 

 several weeks before yeaning, selects some sheltered spot where 

 she may drop her lamb in comfort and security. The care and 

 fondness which the ewe exhibits for her offspring are generally 

 very great. Mr. Jacob Jones relates, that a young lamb having 

 become entangled among some briars, its mother tried to extricate 

 it ; but finding her attempts ineffective, she ran away, uttering a 

 peculiarly doleful baa-ing, and proceeded through four strong 

 hedges until she came to a flock of sheep which were in a 

 distant field. In about five minutes she returned, accompanied 

 by a large ram, who immediately liberated the lamb by dragging 

 away the briars with his powerful horns. The narrator, who 



* Heresbatch's Foure Books of Husbandrie, Englished by Barnaby Googe 

 (I486), p. 139. 



