THE SHEEP 



169 



In this province sheep are kept in flocks, the shepherd, who, as they reach the ojjcn 



varying in number from a hundred to a thou- country, points out to his do<^ the direction he 



sand. In the peat districts there are flocks of wishes taken. When the |)asture is reached the 



sometimes not more than twenty, which are flock disperses among the gorse and heather. 



y 





WVO.MIXO SlIKPHERD AND HIS OUTFIT 



watched by a boy. The great flocks are in 

 charge of a shepherd assisted by his dog, and 

 by a helper if the sheep are very numerous. 

 Usually a large flock belongs to different own- 

 ers living in the same village and having a 

 common right of pasture on the moorland. 



In the morning, when the time comes to lead 

 the flock to the fields, the shepherd blows his 



and the shepherd sits down (still watching his 

 sheep) to his daily avocation, which consists in 

 knitting coarse woolen socks. Besides his knit- 

 ting, the shepherd carries a long crook with a 

 tiny scoop at the end, with which he flings little 

 pellets of earth at the sheep that may chance to 

 stray from the main body, in order to recall them. 

 The shepherd has also a fine horn box adorned 



Sheep Ranching Scene in Alherta, Canada 



horn, the owners open the doors of their sheep- 

 cots, and the different little flocks rush out 

 and form themselves into a great flock, cross- 

 ing the village slowly under the guidance of 



with brass nails and filled with an ointment for 

 the scab, a disease that attacks the moorland 

 sheep sooner than others. This box hangs at 

 his waist. When the shepherd knits he sticks 



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