Of the Shet cottony, that it is adapted to the finest manufactures; and, in some instances, has been found to rival even the Spanish wool*." Stockings fabricated from Shetland wool have been known to sell for six guineas a pair. The skin with the fleece on may be converted into a valuable fur, and in that condition has been sometimes exported from this country to China. It also forms excellent leather aprons. There appears to be two varieties of the Shetland sheep. Of these, the one which is considered as the native race, possesses the finest wool; but their number is now greatly diminished, and in some places they have been almost entirely supplanted by foreign breeds. The wool of this variety is coarse above, but soft and fine below. land sheep it has been observed: "They have three different successions of wool yearly, two of which resemble long hair, more than wool, and are termed by the common people fors and scudda. When the wool begins to loosen in the roots, which generally happens about the month of February, the hairs or scudda spring up; and when the wool is carefully plucked off, the tough hairs continue fast, until the new wool grows up about a quarter of an inch in length, then they gradually wear off; and when the new fleece has acquired about two months' growth, the rough hairs, termed fors, spring up, and keep root, until the proper season for pulling it arrives, when it is plucked off along with the wool, and separated from it at dressing the fleece, by an operation called forcing. The scudda remains upon the skin of the animal, as if it were a thick coat, a fence against the inclemency of the seasons, which provident Nature has furnished for supplying the want of the fleece. The wool is of various colours. The silver-grey is thought to be the finest; but the black, the white, the mourat or brown, is very little inferior; though the pure white is certainly the most valuable for all the finer purposes in which combing wool can be used +." The Hebridean Sheep, as described by Mr Macdonald, is among the smallest of its kind. Its shape is thin and lank, and its horns are usually straight and short. The face and legs • British Quadrupeds. + Sir John Sinclair on the different Breeds of Sheep, &c.-Appendix, No. 4. Account of the Shetland Sheep, by Thomas Johnston, p. 79. are white, the tail very short, and the wool of various colours, sometimes of a bluish-grey, brown, or deep russet, and sometimes all these colours meet in the fleece of one animal. Where the pasture is favourable, and the general management judicious, the wool is very fine, and resembles that of Shetland in softness. "The average weight of this poor breed, even when fat, is only 5 or 5 lb. per quarter, or nearly about 20 lb. per sheep. It is often much less, only amounting to 15 or 16 lb.; and the price of the animal's carcass, skin and all, is from 10s. to 14s. We have seen fat wedders sold in the Long Island at 7s. a-head, and ewes at 5s. or 6s. The quantity of wool which the fleece yields is equally contemptible with the weight of the carcass. It rarely exceeds 1 lb. weight, and is often short of even half that quantity. The quality of the wool is different on different parts of the body; and inattention to separating the fine from the coarse, renders the cloth made in the Hebrides very unequal and precarious in its texture. The average value of a fleece of this aboriginal Hebridean herd is from 8d. to 1s. Sterling. From this account, it is plain that the breed in question has every chance of being speedily extirpated. *” In several of our northern counties there exists a remnant of an ancient race of sheep, distinguished by the yellow colour of the face and legs, and the dishevelled texture of the fleece, which is partly coarse and partly fine. Bewick has described a small and singular variety under the name of Dwarf Sheep. It was brought from abroad; but the particular country is not mentioned. Its features were very grotesque; the wool growing round the head formed a kind of hood or ruff, before which stood its short erect ears. The under jaw protruded considerably beyond the upper, so as to leave the front teeth exposed, somewhat after the manner of the bulldog; and the shortness of the nose, which lay almost immediately under a high projecting forehead, produced a very peculiar physiognomy. In Lincolnshire, there is a small kind, mentioned by Mr Culley under the name of Dunkey, which Mr Bewick supposes may be the same as the one first described. In the preceding enumeration will be found the principal Macdonald's Report of the Hebrides, p. 447. races of British sheep. The list might easily be extended if we were to take into consideration all the less important varieties, and the numerous intermediate links which may be said to connect one characteristic kind with another. Mr Culley describes only 14 breeds in all. Mr Dickson adds to these two other varieties*; and Mr Parkinson extends the roll to 37 peculiar races +. The skill and perseverance of man have certainly been exerted in this matter to a wonderful extent, and with a most successful and beneficial result. The small Dun-faced Sheep, supposed to be the representative of the most ancient stock in this island, exhibits a singularly dissimilar form and aspect to the improved Leicester or Dishley race of modern times. Our present limits will scarcely admit of our bestowing more than a glance upon the continental varieties, of which, indeed, the most important, those of Spain, have been already discussed. The French sheep (Ovis aries Gallica, Encyclop. pl. 46, Figs. 2. and 3.), commonly called Mouton de Picardie, de Brie, de Beauce, are of medium dimensions, and measure about 2 feet 4 inches (French) in height at the shoulder. The rams are usually hornless, the head narrow, and, in common with a portion of the neck and legs, covered with a short, rough, hairy coating; the wool of the body is coarse and abundant, and hangs in large separate masses, composed of straight untwisted filaments. White is the usual colour. The French writers distinguish several varieties, or mixed races, which, like our own, commonly bear the name of the district of which they are the most characteristic. La Flandrine is long and tall, and is supposed to have originated from a cross by an African ram. It is also called Mouton de Texel. La Solognote has a fine slender head, usually hornless, and the wool frizzled at the extremity of the meshes only. La Berichonne is distinguished by the length of its neck. The head is without horns, and furnished with wool on its summit. The fleece is fine, white, short, close, and frizzled. • Practical Agriculture, vol. ii. p. 1135. + On Live Stock, vol. i. p. 249. La Roussillonaise produces a very fine wool, which partakes of the nature of the Spanish fleeces, being spirally twisted in a similar manner. It has probably been crossed with the Merino race *. There are many demi-Merinos in France, and of these the wool is usually longer, though less fine, than that of the true Spanish breeds. The Saxon and Bohemian sheep furnish wool of a very excellent quality. I observe it stated in a recent newspaper, that there are 7,000,000 of sheep in Hungary, of which 3,000,000 belong to Prince Esterhazy +. America has no indigenous domestic sheep; but, in the United States, exertions have been made to maintain or improve the imported breeds of England. "Merinos have been introduced at high prices; but it is found in the Atlantic States, that the Spanish sheep, accustomed to roam, do much mischief on small farms, and they are now mostly sent into the back settlements; nor is the object of woollen manufactures as yet in the States of the Union of equal importance with the clearing of land and growing crops: this branch of industry has consequently not continued to fix the national attention ‡." The unexpected length to which the two divisions of our present communication have already extended, will induce us to postpone the Natural History of the Goat to a future Number, where it will form the subject of a separate essay. • See Desmaret's Mammalogie, p. 491, and Carlier's Traité des Bêtes à laine. + Mr Colquhoun, in 1814, estimated the number of horses in Great Britain and Ireland at 1,800,000; of horned cattle at 10,000,000; and of sheep and lambs at 42,000,000; and calculated that these animals consumed, of hay, grass, straw, vetches, turnips, &c. to the value of L. 103,400,000. Griffith's Animal Kingdom, vol. iv. p. 342. ON THE DISEASE OF THE HORSE, TERMED NAVICULAR. By Mr CHARLES CLARK, Veterinary Surgeon, London. In a SIR, VETERINARY INFIRMARY, STAMFORD STREET, HAVING perused an article on "Contraction of the Foot of the Horse," at page 215 of your Journal, I beg leave to offer some remarks on the same subject, suggested by the view which Mr Dick has taken of lameness in general, and more particularly of that complaint which he terms Navicular Disease, or Grogginess, the right understanding of which is a matter of some consequence; and, therefore, I hope to be allowed candidly to differ with him on certain points, without impeaching the general tenor of his communication. But so much has already been written on this subject, and the difficulties and evils of shoeing have been so often stated, that, unless some new light had appeared to Mr Dick, it seems rather surprising he should have put forward these observations, which do not appear as the result of his own practical knowledge; nor do they tend to set the matter finally at rest, but are merely a recapitulation of the views and treatment pursued by others, and his opinions respecting them, which opinions, as they are not founded on real experience of all he advances, are in some instances incorrect. In tracing the rise and progress of foot lameness, this writer has chosen to ascribe great importance, indeed almost every thing, to the complaint which he calls Navicular disease, and which he says, No. 6, p. 646, "is sometimes the cause, and sometimes the effect, of contraction." In No. 7, at page 218, we are told, that he has shown that contraction of the hoof is commonly an effect of the navicular disease;" and in other places, he clearly asserts that horses with contracted feet do not go lame unless this disease exists. If I were to search his essay for a definition of this magnified evil, it would appear to consist either in an ulceration of the small transverse or shuttle bone of the foot, or in an adhesion between it and the perforans tendon which passes under, and is attached immediately below it. This state of the foot is occasioned, according to Mr Dick, by all shoe |