76 Highland Wool capable of Stapling. 



fleece of a Highland sheep, although it be 

 cleansed like the English fleece from all impu- 

 rities, which is not easily to be effected, he is 

 stopped in his endeavours to discriminate ; for 

 here nature offers no outline of distinction by 

 which the coarse can be separated from the fine 

 wool, of which the fleece is generally presumed 

 to contain little, in short, none worth the search; 

 and he is compelled to return it as unfit for the 

 purposes of his art. In consequence of its 

 being deemed wholly incapable of stapling, it 

 is thought unworthy of further attempts, than 

 those of dividing it into two, three, or at most 

 four sorts ; the coarser of which, more resem- 

 bling hair than wool, is chopped short for 

 making of waggon tilts, and other subordinate 

 purposes ; while the rest, by great labour and 

 expense, is generally converted into carpetting, 

 and other low-priced woollen manufactures. 



I have reason to believe, if strict examinations 

 into t)ie manner in which nature protects this 

 exposed race of her creatures from wet and 

 cold were diligently made, while the imprac- 

 ticability of the ordinary mode of stapling the 

 Highland fleece would become manifest, the 

 value of it would be discovered, and the neces- 

 sity of finding some mode of depuration, and 

 some method of separating the several parts 



