FALDONSIDE TO DALGIG. 245 



bends away by Carnwath to the Pentlands_, and 

 towards the head of Tweed. They still hold the Dal- 

 melzies and Stanhope hills, but they are gradually 

 being put out of Nithsdale at the back of the Luther 

 Hills. About the head of Clyde, at the summit of 

 the hill from Beattock, the Che\dots have been crossed 

 in with the blackface for the sake of stamina, till at 

 the third cross the lambs look full Cheviot, and are 

 sold as such. The last farm that did it was Crooked 

 Stane, ten miles above Beattock, and nearly the 

 highest land in Scotland. It kept to the blackfaced 

 as long as it could, and then it silently followed in 

 the wake of the fashion. The first cross has as little 

 horn as the second, and a third or fourth brings the 

 colour right ; but still, the grey legs are obstinate, 

 and the kemp will sometimes linger obstinately 

 in the wool for years, and "fly away on the machinery 

 when they try to work it.^^ A great many mules 

 are bred in Lanarkshire. Dealers bring the rough 

 Leicester rams direct from Yorkshire, and take back 

 ewe hogg shots to put to the Leicester there. 

 The mules bred in the district are sold at four 

 months for 15s. to 18s., and generally go South. 



Coultar parish, and ten miles round it, is the 

 great centre of the Lanarkshire blackfaces, and 

 Lanark is their market. The Watsons of Coultar, 

 Murray of Pentland Hills, Fryer of Knowhead, on 

 the Campsie Hills, Sandy Denholm of Baitlaws, 

 Dryfe from the Sanquhar Hills which range between 

 Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire, Blacklock of Minny Gap, 



