Gents Mag 1899 part 2 p.544
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Gentleman's Magazine 1899 part 2 p.544
anew, but the summer mists have now to be contended with. Generally speaking, nowadays the shepherd's chiefest dangers - and so far as actual casualties are concerned they are quite mild - lies in this. At any other season the day shows ar early morn what it will be. The night mists dissipate, and the sky becomes clear "as a bell" in spring, the jags and crannies of the distant mountains being very distinct; in autumn, the west wind piling billow upon billow of dense cloud on to the mountain foretells to the shepherd that the valley cannot be left to-day. For weeks together in winter the mist hangs over the fells, soaking the spongy moss; but the shepherd does not need to venture forth then. When a gale is blowing on the hill-tops - and what is a barely perceptible often is of immense strength there - the sheep are very loth to go up, and the shepherd therefore drives them on the more sheltered side and into the ghylls of the mountain. When feeding, sheep have often to cross considerable beds of scree from one patch of herbage to another. So long as their footing does not give way there is no danger, but "with the slip of a sheep's feet goes its head," and very often they struggle wildly down hill with the debris they are dislodging. Terror robs them of all power of climbing. A boulder from the crags above may hasten the final fall into the rock basin or "doup," hundreds of feet below, where the scree bed ends. On other occasions they become crag-fast while climbing. The sheep dare climb no further up the stiff angle, and the shepherd must not descend lest a gathering momentum should carry him past the animal and over the cliff. A rope is used, and once a man is lowered, the animal regains courage and, guided by hand and voice, makes a final effort to get back to safety. Only occasionally are sheep blown over the cliffs during gales, but this is not so entirely due to the vigilance of the shepherd and his dogs in keeping them from such dangerous situations as to their natural aversion for windy positions. The comparative immunity does not, however, apply with so much force to some of the lower crags, especially those surrounding the deep pools of the mountain becks. The rocks in such a place are apt to be treacherous, not only being loose and broken, but masked with long fringes of rotten heather and bracken. Near the level of the cascade by which the water enters the "dub," the slope becomes more abrupt, and it is here that sheep lose their footing, fall into the water, and, help not being at hand, they are drowned. So many as half a dozen carcases have been observed floating in the pool beneath a mountain waterfall. |
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