Although indifferently formed in comparison with the best breeds of the present day, being thin in the breast and back, light quartered, and slow in coming to maturity, they yet possessed some good qualities. They were prolific, excellent nurses, tallowed well, and yielded good mutton. There were, occasionally, some smutty-nosed or brockle-faced sheep among them, distinguished by their additional size, superior merits, and courage. These were usually the leaders of the flock, in their marauding expeditions on their neighbor's domains; and in common with the others, they were eminently adapted to purvey for themselves on the frontier settlements. There were, besides, some black or dark chocolate-brown members in every flock, which were much valued by the thrifty housewife for their wool, which afforded an economical mixture for jackets, hose, and trousers, known as sheep's gray. Our original stock were principally derived from England, where their counterparts may be seen at the present day, in the refuse breeds of that country. When these sheep were well selected and properly bred, there was rapid and satisfactory improvement, and from such flocks, mixed with some of the more recently improved varieties, have sprung many valuable animals. There was but one exception to this general character of the native flocks, so far as our observation extended, which was a considerably numerous, and, probably, accidental variety, known as the _Otter breed_, or _Creepers_. These were an excessively duck-legged animal, with well-formed bodies, full chest, broad backs, yielding a close heavy fleece of medium quality of wool. They were deserved favorites where indifferent stone or wood fences existed, as their power of locomotion was absolutely limited to their enclosures, if protected by a fence not less than two feet high. The quality of their mutton was equal, while their aptitude to fatten was decidedly superior to their longer-legged contemporaries. They are probably now nearly or quite extinct. An excellent variety was produced by General Washington, from a cross of a Persian ram, upon the Bakewell, which bore wool 14 inches in length, soft and silky, and admirably suited to combing. They were called the Arlington sheep, but they have long since become incorporated with the other flocks of the country. The Merino.