with Special Reference to that of December 4 , 1893 . 139 
and we can easily imagine a bewilderment — an entire loss of 
confidence if I may so express it — overtaking them when they 
find themselves overtaken by a thick darkness in which they 
can see nothing. In moving about they would knock against 
their troughs and one another, and the first one that got a fright 
from this and made a little rush would probably come into collision 
with one or two others, and it would need nothing more to imbue the 
whole pen with the idea that there was some cause for fear, occasioning 
this rushing about. Then they would all make a rush, and their 
terror and the momentarily recurring incentives to and aggravations 
of it in the shape of collisions would only subside when they were 
in the open, clear of one another and of their troughs and hurdles. 
If this is a true explanation of the panic (and I confess I can see 
no other), then it is at once clear why folded sheep are so much 
more likely to suffer from these panics than are those in open 
fields. The heavy, oppressive air accompanying this thick darkness ; 
the susceptibility of sheep to any atmospheric disturbance ; and 
the nervous, timid, and fanciful dispositions of these animals, must 
all be taken into account in forming an opinion upon the probability 
of the cause I have here assigned for sheep panics being the true one. 
The cause of the panic being a thick black cloud rolling along 
so low down as to (apparently) touch the ground, the tops of hills 
and the high-lying ground would naturally be most affected ; and this 
supposition is borne out by the facts adduced in this paper. 
We also account in this way for the fact of flocks penned in 
valleys, or (from the lie of the ground) in sheltered positions, being 
unaffected. 
The line of country also usually followed by storms — whether of 
rain only or accompanied by thunder — which in a hilly country like 
ours is generally rather well marked and fairly well known, may 
explain why some parts of the district were not affected, while the 
sheep on the farms all round stampeded. 
To give only one instance of this. Lord Moreton took me to 
the top of a low rounded hill at Sarsden, on which on the night of 
the panic several flocks were penned, and told me that none of them 
were at all disturbed. Some part or other of this hill (which at a 
very rough computation contains about 5,000 acres) is exposed to all 
four quarters of the compass, and from the top an extensive view 
can be obtained ; the situation is therefore open and exposed. 
From the top of the hill Lord Moreton pointed out a long line of 
country passing at no great distance, along which, as far as we know, 
the sheep stampeded on nearly every farm. Along this line many 
thunderstorms pass which do not reach Sarsden and the hill above- 
mentioned. 
Some attempt was made to discover the direction from which 
the cause of fright came by ascertaining on which side of the pens 
the sheep broke out. Subjoined is the evidence. 
Bloxham Grove Farm (Mr. W. H. Warriner) : E. or N.E. 
