356 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
with each farm, and now it is difficult to get ‘gates,’ though 
thirty years ago there were not sheep enough in the dale to stock 
the moors. At that time they were all Scotch wethers, now there 
is not a Scotch wether in the dale. They are all Scotch ewes for 
breeding, and first-rate Leicester tups, called in the dale “ mugs.” 
The result is a sheep known as the “ half-bred,” with plenty of 
wool and mutton—commodities largely in demand in the manu- 
facturing districts of Leeds and Bradford. All the spring and 
summer the sheep run on the moors, each farmer turning out as 
many sheep as he has “gates” for. In November the farmers 
near the dale-head sent their sheep down to winter in Haverah 
Park. ‘Two or three flocks are joined together under the charge 
of one man, who drives them down and remains with them all the 
winter, and brings them back on the approach of spring, late 
in March. ‘They graze on the ling in Haverah Park, or on the 
sweet land that has been formerly ploughed and again ‘“‘ swathed.” 
All the sheep, however, do not go down. ‘The fields in the upper 
part of the dale in winter are full of sheep that have been brought 
down from the high moors. Though these undulating fields, 
with their ridges and hollows, are admirably adapted for wintering 
sheep, they can only accommodate a certain number; many die in 
cold nights, when they contract a disease known as ‘‘ blackwater.” 
In the spring the sheep feed greedily on the flowers of the 
moor-silk (cotton-grass), or, as it is termed in the dale, ‘‘ Moss- 
crops and cutthroats.” Many hundreds are lost on the moor 
during the summer by casualties, such as falling into holes in the 
peat, by getting entangled in the heather, by getting bogged, and 
sometimes by getting drowned. In times of snow, from their 
habit of sheltering in the hollows, sheep often become buried in 
the drift. When this is the case a good dog will “set” them, 
and, if his master is there, he will recover the sheep; but, what 
seems most strange, however good the dog may be, if he is alone 
he will be certain to worry the sheep. None of the dogs on these 
moors are to be trusted when they go by themselves, as they are 
all—the best of them—apt to turn on the sheep. The dogs on 
these moors do not attain to the same perfection as they do in 
Scotland, probably because the runs are smaller; but many dogs 
are sent up to be trained here. 
The sheep dogs in Nidderdale are referable to four distinct 
varieties. One, a thin long-bodied dog, smooth-haired, black and 
