Page:The Hog.djvu/76

74 meat, and the hams, when cured, are pronounced by connoisseurs to be excellent. The Shetland pigs are generally suffered to roam about and forage for themselves at will, and the mischief they do is by no means inconsiderable; for with their muscular snouts they plough up the soil, and root out potatoes, carrots, and turnips, and even upturn the growing corn; and, far from being a source of profit, are, from the mischief they do, an absolute loss to the country.

Dr. Hibbert, (Account of the Shetland Isles,) describes the original Shetland pig as "a little brindle monster, the very epitome of a wild boar, yet scarcely larger in size than a terrier dog:— His bristled back a trench impaled appears, And stands erected like a field of spears."

According to his account, "this lordling of the seat-holds and arable lands ranges undisturbed over his free demesnes, and, in quest or the earthworms and the roots of plants, furrows up the pastures or corn-fields in deep trenches, destroying in his progress all the plovers', curlews', and other birds' nests he meets with. He bivouacs in some potato-field, which he rarely quits until he has excavated a ditch large enough to bury within it a dozen fellow-commoners of his own weight and size. Nor is the reign of this petty tyrant wholly bloodless; young lambs just dropped often fall victims to his ferocity or thirst for blood."

The. To describe the swine found here would be but a repetition of what we have already said. They are small, of roving habits, do much mischief, yield but poor meat unless carefully fattened, and seldom reach a weight of more than sixty or seventy pounds. Low informs us that the pork rarely fetches more than 2d. per pound, and a butcher never thinks of giving more than 4s. or 5s. a-head for the pigs. Ropes are fabricated from the bristles of these animals, by which the natives suspend themselves over the most fearful precipices in search of sea-fowls' eggs; and, short as the hair or bristles are, the ropes manufactured from them are said to answer better for this perilous purpose than hempen ones would, being less liable to be frayed by the sharp and rugged rocks. It is in these northern islands that several authors have spoken of swine being used as beasts of draught, but it could not have been these aboriginal and diminutive breeds, we should conceive, but some of the large, heavy kinds imported from England or Ireland.