86 THE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



will remain contentedly enough during winter, but 

 with the return of spring endeavour to break bounds 

 and seek their native upland pastures. Although 

 their mutton is good, their small size, bad make, 

 and wild, restless disposition render the Dartmoor 

 an unprofitable breed. 



Much the same may be said of Exmoor sheep, 

 which are still smaller than those of Dartmoor, and 

 even more wild and intractable. They carry horns 

 in both sexes, and apparently have white faces and 

 legs, while the rams are stated to develop a large 

 goat-like beard on the chin. The fleece is long 

 and silky, and the mutton of prime quality. The 

 rams, which, as in all the forest breeds, are much 

 bigger than the ewes, are of a pugnacious disposi- 

 tion, and display no hesitation in attacking sheep 

 much larger than themselves. Even in Low's time 

 {circa 1840) both Dartmoor and Exmoor were 

 rapidly disappearing as pure breeds, owing to ex- 

 tensive crossing with Cheviots, by which they have 

 been largely replaced. 



Sheep near akin to the Exmoor breed formerly 

 ranged westward along the Bristol Channel to the 

 valley of the Parret ; while to the eastward they 

 were represented by a fine-woolled breed on the 

 Mendips. 



The comparatively large breed of white-faced 

 and horned sheep which formerly inhabited the 

 Lake District would seem to have belonged to the 



