Improvement of Highland Wool. 75 



Scotland. The practice of smearing, laying, or 

 tarring, is considered as indispensable for the 

 protection of the flocks, in so elevated a coun- 

 try, and so wet a climate ; but such is the timi- 

 dity and uncontrolable impatience of these 

 untameable animals, that from the impractibility 

 of getting their fleeces clean by washing, pre- 

 vious to shearing, they fetch a very inferior 

 price in the market. In addition to this disad- 

 vantage, which, had it been a solitary one, 

 would probably have long since been remedied, 

 there is another of extreme importance, which 

 will never be corrected, until a physical inves- 

 tigation be made of the manner in which nature 

 is pleased to clothe these valuable creatures. 

 All the sheep in the southern parts of the island, 

 be the breed what it may, are uniformly fur- 

 nished with fine wool on some parts, and 

 coarser on other parts of the body. The wool- 

 stapler, aware of these undeviating partitions, 

 is never disappointed by finding coarse wool 

 where he expected to meet with fine, and vice 

 versa. 



He spreads the fleece before him, and pro- 

 ceeds to cast his divisions agreeably to the rules 

 of his practice, the occasions of his trade, and 

 according to the specific breed whence the 

 fleeces had been taken. But on opening the. 



5 



