MEDIUM-TAILED BRITISH BREEDS in 



is long, thick, and tough in the filaments, of inferior 

 felting properties, but tolerably soft to the touch, 

 and rarely approaching to the harsh and wiry 

 character of hair. This kind of wool, from the 

 strength and toughness of its fibres, is unsuitable 

 for being broken into fragments by the action of 

 the card, and is, accordingly, never prepared except 

 for worsted yarn, and by the assorting of the 

 comb. . . . 



"The long-woolled sheep of England are the 

 natives of the richer plains, although they have 

 long been carried to all parts of the country where 

 agriculture has provided the means of supplying 

 artificial food. The first and most extensive 

 locality of this class of sheep is the fine tract of 

 New Red Sandstone [Trias] which, extending 

 southward from the lower valley of the Tees, forms 

 the fertile valley of York and Trent ; and which, 

 extending from the Vale of Trent to the mouth of 

 the Severn, and thence northwards, includes the 

 greater part of the counties of Nottingham, 

 Leicester, Warwick, Worcester, and a part of 

 Stafford and Lancaster, comprehending a tract 

 of the highest fertility with respect to the produc- 

 tion of the grasses and other herbage plants. But 

 connected with this tract, as a locality of the long- 

 woolled sheep, are districts of the Lias and Oolite 

 formations, comprehending the counties of Rutland, 

 Northampton, Gloucester, part of Oxford, and 



