Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1828-03-04
MISCELLANEOUS.
SAGACITY or THE SHEEP.

The sheep has scarcely any marked char
acter, save that of natural affection, OF which
it possesses a very great share. 1t is other
wise stupid, Indifferent animal, having few
wants and fewer expedients. The old black
faced, or forest breed, have far more pow
erful capabilities than any Of the finer breeds
that have been introduced into Scotland, and
therefore the few anecdotes that have to
relate, shall be confined to them.
have heard of sheep returning from
Yorkshire to the Highlands. This IS GER
tain, that when one, or a few sheep, get
away from the rest of their acquaintances,
they return homeward with great eagerness
and perseverance. have lived beside a
road the better part of my life, and many
stragglers have | seen bending their steps
northWard in the spring of the year. A
shepherd rarely secs these journeyers twice
if he sees them in the morning, they are
gone long before night; and if he sees
them at night they will be gone many miles
before morning. This strong attachmentto
the place of their nativity is much more
predominant in our aboriginal breed than
in any of the other kinds with which am
acquainted.
A shepherd in Blackhouse brought few
sheep from another in Crawmel, about ten
miles distant. In the spring following, one
of the ewes went back to her native place,
and yeaned on a wild hill called Crawmel
Craig. On certain day, about the begin
ming of July following the shepherd went
and brought home his eve and handbook
the fleece from the eve, and kept the lamb
for one of his stock. The lamb lived and
throve and never offered to leave home
but when three years of age, and about to
have her first lamb, she vanished; and the
morning after, the Crawmel shepherd, in
going his rounds, found her with new
yeaned lamb on the very gair of the Craw-
mel Craig, where she was LANDED herself
She remained there till the first week of
July, the time when she was brought, a
lamb herself, and then she came home with
hers of her own accord; and this custom she
continued annually with the greatest punctu-
atty as long as she lived. At length her
lambs, when they came Of age, began the
same practice and the shepherd was obliged
to dispose of the whole breed.
But with regard to their natural affec-
ton, the instances that might be mentioned
are without number, stupid and actionless
creatures as they are. When one loses
its sight in flock of short sheep it is rarely
abandoned to itself in that hapless and help
less state. Some one always attaches itself
to it, and by bleating calls it back from the
precipice, the lake, the pool, and all dangers
whatever.
There is another manifest provision of
nature with regard to these animals, which
IS, that the more inhospitable the land is on
which they feed, the greater their kindness
ana attention to their young. | once heIded
two years on wild and hare farm, called
Willenslee, on the border of Mid Lothian, and
of all the sheep ever saw, these were the
kindest and most affectionate to their young.
Twas often deeply affected at scenes which I
witnessed there. We had one very hard
winter, so that our sheep grew lean in the
spring, and the twarter-ill, Ia sort of para
lytic affection) came among them and car
ried off number. Often have l seen these
poor victims, when fallen down to rise no
more, even when unable to lift their heads
from the ground, holding up the leg, to in
vite the starving lamb to the miserable pit
lance that the udder still could supply. II
had never seen aught more painfully affec-
| ting.
It'll well known that it is custom with
| shepherds, when lamb dies, if the mother
have sufficiency of milk, to bring her in and
put another lamb to her. have described
the process somewhere else-it is done by
putting the skin of the dead lamb upon the
living one the eve Immediately acknowl-
edges the relationship, and after the skin
has warmed on it, SO as to give it something
OF the smell OF her own progeny, and it has
sucked her two or three times, she accepts
and nourishes it as her own ever after.
Whether it is from joy at this apparent
termination Of her young one, or little
doubt remaining on her mind that she would
fam dlspel, cannot decide; but, for a num-
Der of days, she shows far more fondness.
more bleating, and caressing, over this one.
than she did formerly over the one that was
really her own.
But this is not what wanted to explain ::
it was, that such sheer as thus lose their
lambs must be driven to house with dogs.
SO that the lamb may be put to them; for
they will only take in dark confined place.
But here, in Willenslee, never need to
4 drive home sheep by force, with dogs, or
In any other way than the following 81
found every eve, of course, standing hang
ing her head over her dead lamb, and hay-
ing apiece of Irvine with me for the purpose,
l tied that to the lambs neck or toes, and
trailing it along the eve followed me into
any house or fold that chose to lead her.
Any of them would have followed me that
way for miles, her nose close on the lamb.
which she never quilted for moment, ex-
cept to chase the dog, which she would not
suffer to walk near me- Toffan out &c ~,