ORDER RUMINANTIA. 339 



This Zetland breed, and another variety in the same 

 islands, " carry a very fine wool in three different succes- 

 sions yearly ; two of which resemble long hair more than 

 wool, named Fors and Scudda. When the wool begins to 

 loosen in the roots, which generally happens about Febru- 

 ary, the hairs or scudda spring up, and then the wool is 

 carefully plucked off; these hairs remain firm, until the 

 new wool grows up about a quarter of an inch in length, 

 then they gradually wear off, and the new fleece has acquired 

 about two months growth. The new hairs, termed Fors, 

 spring up, and keep root until the proper season for pull- 

 ing it arrives, when it is plucked off along with the wool, 

 and separated from it at dressing the fleece, by an opera- 

 tion termed Forsing. The Scudda remains upon the ani- 

 mal as if it were a thick coat, a fence against the incle- 

 mency of the season, which provident nature has furnished 

 for supplying the wants of the fleece. The wool is of vari- 

 ous colours ; the silver-gray is thought to be finest ; but 

 the black, the white, the mourat, or brown, is very little 

 inferior, though the pure white is certainly the most valu- 

 able for all the finer purposes in which combing wool can 

 be used." 



The Hebridean Sheep is the smallest animal of the kind. 

 It has usually straight short horns, a thin lank shape ; the 

 face and legs are white ; the tail very short ; the wool of 

 various colours. Bluish and gray-brown, or deep russet, 

 sometimes meet in the fleece of one animal. It rarely ex- 

 ceeds one pound weight per fleece, though in good pastures 

 it is fine. This breed is likely to be speedily extirpated. 



Among the hornless race of England, the Lincoln breed, 

 with long wool, has the face white, the carcass long and 

 thin ; thick rough white legs ; the bones large, the pelts 

 thick, and the wool from ten to eighteen inches long, 

 weighing from eight, to fourteen pounds per fleece, and 

 covering a slow feeding coarse-grained carcass of mutton. 



