178 THE ANGORA GOAT, 
my pure Camden flock of slieep in this way, but found 
that although the numbers were quite distinct on the 
ears of some of them, the brown freckled skin in the 
inside of the ears of others prevented the numbers from 
being legible, and I was obliged to give up the plan. 
The system I finally adopted is the invention of a 
German breeder of the Merino, named Von Thaer, and 
like many valuable inventions, it is remarkable for its 
simplicity. By the use of three simple marks made on 
the sheeps' ear with a knife, and pincers something 
like those used by railway guards, and by combinations 
of these marks, numbers from 1 to 10,000 can be 
indicated, and the system when properly understood 
is so simple, that an intelligent shepherd or boundary 
rider can learn to read the numbers in twenty minutes, 
and with almost as much ease and certainty as if 
written in figures. As this statement may seem 
puzzling to some, I will explain how it is effected. 
The three marks consist of : 1st. A notch such as a 
railway-guard makes in a ticket. 2nd. The tip of 
the ear cut square off. 3rd. A hole in the ear. To 
each mark an arbitrary value is given, according to its 
position on the ears of the sheep, and the sum of such 
values represents the distinguishing number of the 
individual. 
The three marks and their values are given below, 
in a rude drawing of a sheep's ears. 
M M M 
* 1 A 400 1000 
By varying the position and increasing the number 
of these marks, different numbers are indicated. I 
