WHITE CATTLE : AN INQUIRY INTO THEIR ORIGIN, ETC. 223 



ago. A writer, for example, in the Fenny Magazine, in 1838, on 

 our wild cattle, says : — '•' It is, however, highly probable that 

 these animals are the remains of a breed which was formerly kept 

 tame in the farms in many parts of England." Another writer on 

 " Animal Economy," in the Farmers^ Library (1847), says: — " The 

 ancient Britons had tame cattle in abundance, and among these 

 a white breed particularly valued. . . . The descendants of 

 these might at various times have become feral . . . and of 

 these feral herds the Chillingham wild cattle may be the lineal 

 descendants, if not, indeed, the tame race once so much esteemed." 

 Again, in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture for 1829, James 

 Wilson writes: — " The supposed original of this animal (the Urus 

 of the ancients) is probably extinct in the living state. In the 

 fossil skulls, which appear to represent it, the horns are curved 

 forwards and downwards, but in the countless varieties of the 

 domestic breed these parts are very different in their forms and 

 direction, and are sometimes wanting altogether." 



The early history of our cattle generally, or of white cattle 

 specially, seems to rest on two descriptions — first, that of Caesar, 

 with his great long-horned, wild, and untamable Aurochs, or Uri, 

 of the Hercynian, or Black Forest of Germany; and secondly, that 

 of Hector Boece or Boethius, with his wild and untamable bulls of 

 the purest white, having manes like lions, which roamed in the 

 Caledonian forest. English and Continental naturalists have 

 never been tired apparently of ringing the changes on these two 

 descriptions. It is now generally admitted that Csesar in his 

 description has mixed up two animals. He tells us that " great 

 is their strength and great their speed," that they have the 

 appearance, colour, and form of an Italian bull, though as large 

 as an elephant, and that so savage is their nature that, "though 

 taken never so young, they cannot be tamed," while "those who 

 kill most bulls carry back the horns as a glorious trophy of the 

 chase." If Csesar's Urus be regarded as a Bison, then it could 

 not have had the appearance, colour, or form of an Italian bull. 

 If it be regarded simply as an Ox, then it could not have had the 

 antipathy to the other Bovidre we are told that it did show. 

 Did Ciesar ever see these animals ? Seeing that modern scholar- 

 ship states that Caesar's Commentaries, ttc, especially regarding 

 the Hercynian Forest, are simply transcripts from Pytheas, who 



