52 I Assembly 



crags, they slide down into yawning abysses, from which they 

 never arise. 



Then on the flanks of the Alps, both herdsmen and shepherds 

 encounter frequent mists and fogs that completely shroud the 

 mountains, and make any steps taken by man or beast highly 

 perilous. Nor is this all. "When the fearful tornado drives along 

 the sides of these high mountains, cattle become frantic, and in 

 the disorder they rush headlong down precipices, and will not 

 listen to the call of their keepers. The goats will also disperse, 

 and although less exposed to slide and fall than neat cattle, yet 

 they are frequent victims to their rashness, and their young falls 

 often a prey to the Lammergeier, or lamb- vulture. 



It is safe to put down the amount of goats in Switzerland to 

 about a half million; the annual exportation of kids for the 

 neighboring markets in Lombardy and France, at about 3,000 

 heads. It is supposed about 10,000 goat and kid skins are sent 

 abroad year after year, beside their home consumption is immense. 

 It is a very prolific animal ; the female bears usually twins. 

 They are the most hardy of all the domestic animals of the 

 country. Heat and cold little incommode them. They will 

 crop the most bitter and even poisonous plants, and feed on 

 willows, the juniper, and cranberry. 



I am sorry that I cannot give a very flattering account of the 

 sheep-husbandry of the Helvetic Confederation. It is enough to 

 say, they have only two breeds, the native coarse-wooled sheep, 

 whose staple would in any country be deemed a very inferior 

 article, and then you will find here and there a flock of the 

 Flemish breed. The latter have a finer fleece, but it will take 

 the third rank below those tine ovine races found in Saxony or 

 England. 



For the last century the Swiss have made but little or no im- 

 provement in this line of husbandry. This comes entirely from 

 want of enterprise, and a dogged adherence to old exploded ideas 

 of rural economy which is carried even into cattle and sheep 

 breeding. Switzerland abounds, as we have said, in the finest 



