ell-authenticated story of a ship-load of sheep that was
lost because an old ram jumped overboard, and all the rest followed him.
No doubt they did, and were proud to do it. A sheep won't go through
an open gate on his own responsibility, but he would gladly and proudly
"follow the leader" through the red-hot portals of Hades: and it makes
no difference whether the lead goes voluntarily, or is hauled struggling
and kicking and fighting every inch of the way.

For pure, sodden stupidity there is no animal like the merino. A lamb
will follow a bullock-dray, drawn by sixteen bullocks and driven by
a profane person with a whip, under the impression that the aggregate
monstrosity is his mother. A ewe never knows her own lamb by sight, and
apparently has no sense of colour. She can recognise its voice half a
mile off among a thousand other voices apparently exactly similar; but
when she gets within five yards of it she starts to smell all the other
lambs within reach, including the black ones--though her own may be
white.

The fiendish resemblance which one sheep bears to another is a great
advantage to them in their struggles with their owners. It makes it more
difficult to draft them out of a strange flock, and much harder to tell
when any are missing.

Concerning this resemblance between sheep, there is a story told of
a fat old Murrumbidgee squatter who gave a big price for a famous ram
called Sir Oliver. He took a friend out one day to inspect Sir Oliver,
and overhauled that animal with a most impressive air of sheep-wisdom.

"Look here," he said, "at the fineness of the wool. See the serrations
in each thread of it. See the density of it. Look at the way his legs
and belly are clothed--he's wool all over, that sheep. Grand animal,
grand animal!"

Then they went and had a drink, and the old squatter said, "Now, I'll
show you the difference between a champion ram and a second-rater." So
he caught a ram and pointed out his defects. "See here--not half the
serrations that other sheep had. No density of fleece to speak of.
Bare-bellied as a pig, compared with Sir Oliver. Not that this isn't
a fair sheep, but he'd be dear at one-tenth Sir Oliver's price. By the
way, Johnson" (to his overseer), "what ram _is_ this?"

"That, sir," replied the astounded functionary--"that _is_ Sir Oliver,
sir!"

There is another kind of sheep in Australia, as great a curse in his own
way as the merino--namely, the cross-bred, or half-mer