Farming of Cumberland. 



267 



charge of such a dog", that all their efforts to break away are fruit- 

 less, let the flock be ever so wild and numerous, or the field of 

 operation ever so rugged and unfavourable. 



It is surprising to observe what cunning a drove of pure Herd- 

 wicks will sometimes exhibit in their endeavours to baffle an ill- 

 trained dog. While the driving or gathering ground is favourable 

 to the dog, all goes on well enough ; but no sooner do the wily- 

 creatures discover a suitable opportunity, than perhaps one or 

 two break off on one side, and, while the dog attempts to head 

 them, others steal away in different directions on the other side ; 

 v/hile the dog attends to them, the mischief increases, and nearly 

 the whole flock will disperse, to the utter discomfiture and amaze- 

 ment of the dog; but if at this juncture the tactics of a clever 

 dog are brought to bear on the flock, in an astonishingly short 

 period the whole of them will be subdued and brought into order, 

 and may be driven without difficulty so long as the master-spirit 

 is within call. 



Some dogs have the faculty of discovering sheep when buried 

 to a considerable depth under the snow, as happens occasionally. 

 A dog possessed of this quality is of immediate value equal to 

 the amount of the sheep he releases or marks. A single dog has 

 been known to point out unerringly the locality of many scores of 

 drifted sheep in a day, even when several of them were at a depth 

 beyond the reach of the shepherd's snow-pole. In the great Mar- 

 tinmas snow-storm of 1807 (by far the heaviest fall within the 

 present century), the writer was personally engaged, though very 

 young, assisting to search for and release about 400 sheep, being 

 part of a flock of Herdwicks which had been turned out on the 

 common from the fold late in the evening before the snow began 

 to fall. The darkness prevented them from reaching their known 

 heaf ; and the storm coming suddenly, and falling very heavily, 

 the poor animals were surprised at a disadvantage, and nearly all 

 were covered up in hollows, under walls, and other places where 

 they had sought shelter. To add to their confusion, the wind 

 veered during the night, while the snow was falling, from south- 

 east to north-west, and thus all chance of escape was cut off; 

 for those the first part of the storm had left uncovered were 

 drifted under a still greater depth by the enormous masses of 

 loose snow whirled about by the wind, and blown in exactly 

 the opposite direction to that of the first fall. After a fearful 

 night of tempest and of useless foreboding on the part of the 

 family, at daybreak next morning not a sheep of the flock 

 turned out was to be seen, for every one was drifted over, and 

 none could tell where a single sheep was to be found. All hands 

 were put to work probing in the drifts with long poles, and here 

 and there a few sheep were discovered, after much laborious 



