278 NATURAL HISTORY 



ments of the hills that have been taken 

 round my house,I should suppose that these 

 hills surmount the wild at an average at 

 about the rate of five hundred feet. 



One thing is very remarkable as to the 

 sheep ; from the w^estward till you get to 

 the river Adur all the flocks have horns, 

 and smooth white faces, and white legs ; 

 and a hornless sheep is rarely to be seen : 

 but as soon as you pass that river eastward, 

 and mount Beeding-hill, all the flocks at 

 once become hornless, or, as they call them, 

 poll-sheep ; and have moreover black faces 

 with a white tuft of wool on their fore- 

 heads, and speckled and spotted legs : so 

 that you would think that the flocks of 

 Lahan were pasturing on one side of the 

 stream, and the variegated breed of his son- 

 in-law Jacob were cantoned along on the 

 other. And this diversity holds good re- 

 spectively on each side from the valley of 

 Bramher and Seeding to the eastward, and 

 westward all the whole length of the downs. 

 If you talk with the shepherds on this sub- 

 ject, they tell you that the case has been 



