enables them to bear cold which would be fatal to other animals. They
appear to know, too, when a storm is approaching, and take refuge under
a sheltering hill or some projecting cliff.

"One very curious thing is, that they can live under the snow for a long
time. Mr. Sullivan, who is a shepherd, you know, told me a circumstance
which occurred in his own experience.

"There was every appearance of a storm, and he, with his men, drove the
sheep early into the fold. In the morning, on counting them, he found
there were seven valuable ewes missing. It had snowed all night, and was
still snowing, when he started out in search of them. But nowhere could
they be found. The storm continued four days, and the snow had reached a
depth very uncommon; but day after day the search was renewed. At last,
however, it was given up; when one day a woodcutter, in going over a
stone wall which lay almost entirely concealed, fell through the snow,
and found himself in the midst of the lost sheep. Their breath had
rendered the crust, which was firm enough to bear his weight in other
places, so thin here that it would not sustain him. They seemed lively
and well, having found enough dead grass under the snow to sustain life.

"There is an instance very similar to this in one of my books, which I
will find and read to you."

"In the winter of 1800, a sheep was buried in the snow near Kendal, and
remained there thirty-three days and nights, without the possibility of
moving, and yet survived.

"In the same winter, a sheep near Caldbeck, in Cumberland, was buried
thirty-eight days; when found, it had eaten the wool completely off both
its shoulders, and was reduced to a skeleton; but with great care it
recovered."

"Mr. James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, gives a most interesting account
of eight hundred ewes that were buried in the snow. Some of them he and
his fellow-servants succeeded in getting out the first day; but the
second there were but few of them to be seen, except the horns of some
stragglers. The men went about, boring with long poles, but with little
success, until their dog found out their difficulty, and flying to a
spot, began to scrape away the snow. From this time, by his keen scent,
he marked faster than they could get them out, and by his skill saved
two hundred, though some were buried in a mountain of snow fifty feet
deep. They were all alive, and most of them recovered their strength."

CHAPTER III.

THE S