232 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



ago" — that is, about 1760. "Their appearance was 

 beautiful, being milk-white, with black muzzles, horns, 

 and hoofs. The bulls are described by ancient authors 

 as having white manes ; but those of latter days had 

 lost that peculiarity, perhaps by intermixture with the 

 tame breed." Can we doubt that Sir Walter — a 

 guest at the palace and a visitor to the forest, with 

 a genius for old lore, for tradition and legend, and 

 a heart brimming over with song responsive to 

 these scenes suggestive of a heroic past — would not 

 have been almost as eager to see these cattle as he 

 would have been to look on a resuscitated band of 

 ancient retainers ? Can we imagine he would fail 

 to inquire about them ? For forty years or so they 

 had then been extinct. This is an extraordinary 

 statement, when we reflect that a similar herd of 

 cattle is still there. From Wilson's poem we know 

 that they were there about forty years before. 



Pennant made a tour in Scotland in 1769. He savs 

 of Hamilton : " The park is now much enclosed ; but 

 I am told that there are still in it a few of the breed of 

 the wild cattle which Boethius says were peculiar 

 to the Caledonian forest, were of snowy whiteness, 

 and had manes like lions : they were at this time 

 in a distant part of the park, and I lost the sight of 

 them." In a note he adds, "I was also informed 

 that the same herd is found in the Duke of Queens- 

 berry's Park at Drumlanrig, but at present in no 

 part of North Britain in an unconfined state." He 

 again made a tour in Scotland in 1772. He saw the 

 white cattle at Drumlanrig. He does not see them 

 at Cadzow, but is told that there are still a few " of 

 the same kind as those I saw at Drumlanrig." 



Lightfoot accompanied Pennant in this tour in 1772, 

 and in 1777 he published his Flora Scotica, prefixed 

 to which is a sketch of Caledonian Zoology written 

 by Pennant. Of these cattle he says : " None at 

 present found unconfined. The offspring of the 

 original breed still preserved in the parks of Hamil- 

 ton and Drumlanrig ; and also in that of Chillingliam 



