~ SHELTER. 
matter. When an engineer wishes to oppose 
the tide, he does not put down a long dead wall ; 
he puts down in the strength of the current, a 
point of great power, and as the strength of the 
current, thus broken, diminishes, he diminishes 
his defences, and finally leaves the matter to the 
tide itself, when fully broken, to the desired di- 
rection. In like manner, the person dealing with 
the winds, should consider where they bear 
hardest, and where they may be made to trend 
away with advantage, and suit his defences to 
the exigency, whether in height or strength. 
A very slight defence, for example, placed ona 
height exposed to the east, may not only protect 
that height, but shelter a long reach of lower 
land. The whole east coast of Scotland is bold, 
and itis bare. A belt of wood behind a wall of 
proper height, and presenting proper angles to 
the blast, might shelter whole districts inland ; 
and so, of any other exposure, art is in this case, 
as in most others, greatly more than strength. 
An hundred yards of wall or of wood, rightly 
placed, may do more than a thousand placed 
without skill. Put down without judgment, in- 
deed, intended defences may do manifest injury, 
for they may shut out the most kindly influences, 
and expose the crop to a cataract of included 
winds. But, as a general position, shelter is, in 
Scotland, of the greatest value; it is nearly a 
national object; it might.reclaim many thou- 
sand acres that without it never can be reclaimed, 
and almost incalculably improve many thousands 
more. In a recent history of Devonshire, it is 
said, ‘In this part of the country, the fences are 
chiefly high mounds, surmounted by coppice- 
woods, which not only afford a sufficient supply of 
fuel, but also a surplus of poles, cordwood, fag- 
_ gots, and oak-bark for sale. This kind of product 
is considered a crop of some value, in addition 
to its utility as a fence; as it affords to the 
pasturing animals excellent protection from 
wind and sun, with but moderate care and ex- 
pense in repairing. These hedges are better 
adapted to the hilly surface of Devon, than to 
more level countries, commonly forming alto- 
gether a barrier thirty feet high, which so softens 
the rigour of the unfriendly blasts, that many of 
the inferior hills are cultivated to the very sum- 
mits. A stranger unaware of the practice, con- 
siders himself as travelling in deep hollow ways, 
for miles, till arriving at some elevated opening, 
| he is charmed with the delightful scenery of the 
fertile country he has passed.’ This places the 
principle of shelter on a large scale, so com- 
pletely on the footing of an approved practice, 
in. one of the counties of England, apparently 
made ‘the finest’ by this very practice, that 
there seems to be no necessity for giving the 
idea out with fear. The whole of the east coast 
of Scotland should be sheltered by high mounds, 
either carrying or protecting wood ; and in every 
situation where the plains or valleys are swept 
by scourging blasts, similar impediments should 
SHEPHERD. 207 
be put down. This acted upon as a general 
principle, for a few years, would entirely change 
the climate and aspect and even the soil of many 
parts of Scotland ; for as money makes money, so 
heavy crops lead to heavier crops, by enriching 
at once the soil and the cultivator, from making 
more manure, and sheltering and fining the soil. 
There is no part of Scotland, or England, or 
Ireland, that may not be sheltered at less ex- 
pense than the wilds of America may be cleared, 
and with more certainty of a market for the’ 
proceeds. Sheltering leases, therefore, should 
be granted, as improving leases have been ; and 
speedily we should see shelters rise, as profitable 
to the raisers, as pleasing and profitable to the 
country.” 
SHEPHERD. A person who has the care and 
management of a flock of sheep. A shepherd in 
eastern countries and in patriarchal times is a 
character of intense interest, and forms the sub- 
ject of many of the most glorious and sublime 
allusions in the best of books. See the article 
Suemp. Even a hill-shepherd, in our own coun- 
try, at the present day, is, or ought to be, one of 
the choicest of rural men,—eminent for common 
sense and country skill, in all matters of ordi- 
nary observation, distinguished for wisdom and 
kindness in the discharge of his immediate 
duties, and lifted high into the purest philosophy 
and the most religious devotion by the peculiar 
influences of his position. Hogg, the well-known 
Httrick Shepherd, was a remarkable instance of 
how the tending of flocks may warm the heart 
and fire the genius and light up the whole in- 
tellect into a luminary ; and, in spite of all the 
doubtfulness and darkness of his higher specula- 
tions, even he spake of the mountain shepherd 
“seeing God in the clouds,” and being almost of 
necessity an intensely religious man. “The 
daily feeling naturally impressed on the shep- 
herd’s mind,” said he, “ that all his comforts are 
so entirely in the hand of Him that rules the 
elements, contributes not a little to that firm 
spirit of devotion for which the Scottish shep- 
herd is so distinguished. I know of no scene so 
impressive as that of a family sequestered in a 
low glen during the time of a winter storm; and 
where is the glen in the kingdom that wants such 
a habitation? ‘There they are left to the pro- 
tection of heaven, and they know and feel it. 
Throughout all the wild vicissitudes of nature, 
they have no hope of any assistance from man, 
but are conversant with the Almighty alone. 
Before retiring to rest, the shepherd uniformly 
goes out to examine the state of the weather, 
and makes his report to the little dependent 
group within ; nothing is to be seen but the con- 
flict of the elements, nor heard but the roaring 
of the storm; then they all kneel around him 
while he recommends them to the protection of 
heaven ; and though their little hymns of praise 
can scarcely be heard, even by themselves, as 
they mix with the roar of the tempest, they 
al 
SSA TAS ef 
